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PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 



GILBERT J. GARRAGHAN, S. J. 




CARDINAL NEWMAN. 



PROSE TYPES IN 

NEWMAN 



A BOOK OF SELECTIONS 

FROM THE WRITINGS OF 

JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN 



EDITED BY 
V 

GILBERT J^GARRAGHAN, S.J. 

ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY 



NEW YORK 

SCHWARTZ, KIRWIN & FAUSS 






Copyright, igi6, by 
SCHWARTZ, KIRWIN & FAUSS 



■/i 
JUL 2 1 I9I6 



JCLA43194 3 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

The selections from Cardinal Newman brought 
together in this volume are meant to furnish mate- 
rial for the study of the so-called forms of discourse 
or recognized types of literary expression. This 
study has come to have a place of importance in the 
English course, both in high school and in college, 
and hence any method that will help to make it prac- 
ticable as a class-room exercise has a claim on the 
English teacher's attention. The Questions and 
Studies accompanying the selections emphasize prin- 
ciples and processes in the literary forms as such 
rather than characteristics of diction and style. 
These latter fall outside the scope of the criticism 
intended, except in cases where they bear directly 
on the theory of the type under study. The rhetori- 
cal study of the five recognized types of composi- 
tion, as illustrated in the texts herewith presented, 
represents, therefore, the primary purpose of the 
volume. At the same time the selections are suffi- 
ciently diverse in content and style to give the stu- 
dent an insight into the varying moods of a great 
and classic prose. 



TO THE INSTRUCTOR 

i. The first legitimate step in the critical study 
of any piece of literature is mastery of the author's 
meaning - . Hence the meaning of the text, whenever 
in doubt, should be cleared up promptly by reflec- 
tion, class-room discussion, or other means. 

2. A word as to the Glossary and the principle 
on which it is compiled. Obviously the proper 
names occurring in a text for English study ought 
not to remain merely names, without any sugges- 
tion to the student of the realities for which they 
stand. On the other hand, to put the student thumb- 
ing books of reference for the needed information 
has the disadvantage, to say nothing of the time 
consumed in the process, of distracting him from 
the chief purpose of his study, which is to improve 
himself in English and not to acquire special infor- 
mation. Hence the Glossary aims to furnish some 
little information in regard to proper names and al- 
lusions, thus saving the student time and labor which 
can be spent to better advantage on the text itself. 
And here it may be noted that the full import 
of names is often lost on the immature student 
or beginner in literature. It is wide, sympathetic 



Vlll TO THE INSTRUCTOR 

reading and, perhaps, experience of life that invest 
certain names with their true significance ; and hence 
no amount of encyclopedic detail heaped around 
them for the occasion by the industrious student will 
enable him to elicit from them the same significance 
and charm which they convey to the experienced 
reader. 

Nothing of what has just been said is to be inter- 
preted as discounting the value to the student of a 
habit of self-reliant research. To be able to use 
books of reference with intelligence and dispatch 
should be part of the equipment of every student, 
and therefore frequent practice both in and outside 
the class-room calculated to develop such power will 
not be overlooked in a well-considered curriculum. 

3. The Questions and Studies bear particularly 
on the principles and methods of the five character- 
istic literary types. Hence preceding the several 
groups of extracts will be found summaries of prin- 
ciples and definitions, the purpose of these sum- 
maries being to furnish the student with a compact 
critical apparatus for ready use. The Questions and 
Studies, it is hardly necessary to say, indicate a 
method of study rather than exhaust even remotely 
the possibilities of criticism as regards the texts 
under study. Suggestive in character, they are 
meant to open up to the instructor the way to still 
further questioning and analysis along similar lines. 

4. The Topical Analyses (p. 217) will be of serv- 
ice for an occasional review of rhetorical principles 



TO THE INSTRUCTOR IX 

or for a systematic study of these principles as illus- 
trated in one or more of the selections. 

5. Where it is thought better to emphasize the 
general elements of composition rather than specific 
literary types, the selections may be studied for such 
particulars as choice of words, sentence and para- 
graph structure, characteristics of style, etc. A 
method suitable for this purpose will be found in 
Cardinal Newman's Literature, edited by G. J. Gar- 
raghan, S.J. (Schwartz, Kirwin and Fauss). 

An asterisk occurring in the text indicates that 
the name, phrase, or quotation so marked will be 
found in the Glossary. Names occurring more than 
once are starred only at their first occurrence in 
the text. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

John Henry Cardinal Newman, 1801-1890 ... xiii 

The Forms of Discourse 1 

SELECTIONS 

A. Narration 2 

I. The Battle of Lepanto 5 

II. He Shall not Lose his Reward 10 

III. Gurta and Juba 20 

IV. The Northmen in England and Ireland . . 32 
V. The Death of St. Bede 38 

B. Description 43 

VI. Attica 47 

VII. Sicca Veneria S 1 

VIII. The Locust Plague S§ 

LX. Jucundus at Supper 71 

X. The Conversion of England 83 

XL The First Synod of Westminster 86 

XII. Callista's Dream 9° 

C. Exposition 95 

XIII. The Idea of God 99 

XIV. The Poetry of Monachism 107 

'XV. What is a University ? 113 

XVI. The Definition of a Gentleman 121 

XVII. Accuracy of Mind 126 

XVIII. St. Philip Neri 131 

XIX. The Mass 138 

XX. The Lion and the Painter 142 

xi 



XU CONTENTS 

PAGE 

D. Argumentation 147 

XXI. Theology a Branch of Knowledge .... 151 

XXII. Intellectual Culture not Mere Knowledge . 157 

XXIII. The Social State of Catholic Countries no 

Prejudice to the Sanctity of the Church 171 

XXIV. States and Constitutions 177 

XXV. " All who Take Part with the Apostle are 

on the Winning Side " 185 

E. Persuasion 193 

XXVI. An Appeal to the Laity 195 

[ XXVII. Remembrance of Past Mercies 202 

XXVIII. God's Will the End of Life 206 

XXIX. The Assumption 210 

XXX. The Parting of Friends 215 

Topical Analyses 217 

Glossary and Notes 221 



JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN 

1801-1890 

1801 Born in the city of London, February 21, his parents 
being John Newman, a banker, and Jemima Fou- 
drinier, who was of Huguenot descent. 

1808 Attended school at Ealing, near London. 

1815 Published three periodicals, The Spy, The Anti-Spy, 

and The Beholder, the last running through forty 
numbers. 

1816 Matriculated in December at Trinity College, Ox- 

ford. 

1819 With a friend, Mr. Bowden, brought out The Un- 
dergraduate, a periodical patterned after Addison's 
Spectator. 

1821 Made a Fellow of Oriel, April 12. " The turning- 
point of his life and of all days the most memor- 
able." 

1824 Ordained in the Anglican Church, June 13, and be- 

came Curate of St. Clement's, Oxford, where he 
remained two years. 

1825 Appointed Vice-Principal of Alban Hall by his 

friend, Dr. Whately. 

1828 Made Vicar of St. Mary's, the University Church, 
in the pulpit of which he preached his Parochial 
Sermons. When published " they beat all other 
sermons out of the market, as Scott's tales beat 
all other stories." 

1832 Resigned his tutorship at Oriel and went in De- 
cember with Hurrel Froude on a long voyage 
around the Mediterranean. Wrote on this voyage 



XIV JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN 

eighty-five poems in which " the Tractarian Move- 
ment . . . sprang forth armed in lyrical strains." 
This " sea-cycle " includes Lead, Kindly Light, 
written while Newman's ship lay becalmed for a 
week in the Straits of Bonifacio, near Sicily. 
Near death's door with fever at Castro Giovanni, 
he cried out, " I shall not die. I have not sinned 
against the light ! " 

1833 Returned (July 9) to England, where, as he said, 
he had a work to do. Five days later, Sunday, 
July 14, Keble, in his sermon at St. Mary's on 
" National Apostasy," inaugurated the Oxford 
Movement, the aim of which was to rid the An- 
glican Church of state interference and restore 
within it the " Church of the Fathers." Newman, 
as his contribution to the movement, began to issue 
Tracts for the Times. 

1841 Published Tract 90, a virtual defense of Catholic 
doctrine. The tract caused a storm, and Newman, 
mildly censured by his Bishop, subsequently re- 
tired into lay communion at Littlemore. 

1845 Received into the Catholic Church, October 9, by 

Fr. Dominic, an Italian Passionist. 

1846 Ordained a priest in Rome. 

1847 Returned to England with permission from Pius 

IX to establish there the Oratory of St. Philip 

Neri. 
1850 Founded the London Oratory. 
1852 Preached his best known sermon, The Second 

Spring, July 21, in St. Mary's College, Oscott, on 

the occasion of the First Provincial Synod of 

Westminster. 
1852 Delivered in Dublin nine discourses on University 

Teaching (first part of The Idea of a University). 
1854 Appointed Rector of the Catholic University in 

Dublin. 



JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN XV 

1854- Wrote ten " occasional lectures and essays addressed 
1858 to the members of the Catholic University " 
(second part of The Idea of a University). 
1858 Retired from the rectorship of the Catholic Uni- 
versity. 

1864 Wrote the Apologia pro Vita Sua, his famous auto- 

biography, which appeared in seven parts between 
April 21 and June 2. 

1865 Wrote The Dream of Gerontius. 

1879 Created a Cardinal-deacon by Leo XIII. Chose for 
his cardinalitial motto a sentence from St. Fran- 
cis de Sales, " Cor ad cor loquitur " (" Heart 
speaketh to heart"). 

1890 Died, August 11, at the Oratory, Edgbaston, near 
Birmingham, England. His epitaph, written by 
himself, reads, " Ex umbris et imaginibus in veri- 
tatem " (" Coming out of shadows into realities "). 

The editor is indebted to Barry's Newman for data 
embodied in the foregoing outline of Newman's life. 



PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 



THE FORMS OF DISCOURSE 

Conversation under normal conditions runs 
along - at haphazard without pretense to unity or 
plan. A great variety of topics may be covered, 
but no unifying principle binds them together. On 
the other hand, discourse or organized speech, how- 
ever varied its contents, is a structural unit, all its 
members serving a common end and knit together 
by the bond of a common underlying theme. The 
forms of discourse may be reduced to five : Narra- 
tion, Description, Exposition, Argumentation, and 
Persuasion. Of these, Narration and Description 
address themselves in the main to the imagination 
and emotions, Exposition and Argumentation to 
the intellect, and Persuasion to the will. 1 

1 The editor of this book of selections has not hesitated 
to apply the term " prose " to the composition-types herein 
illustrated, though obviously these types in their fullest 
range transcend the division of literature into poetry 
and prose. 



A. NARRATION 

i. Definition. Narration is a form of discourse 
which sets forth in sequence the particulars of a 
transaction or event. 

Narration postulates a group of particulars. 
What happens instantaneously without succession 
of details cannot in any true sense of the term be 
narrated. Hence the simplest narrated incident 
must show some succession of details, however triv- 
ial. Narration thus finds its proper material in 
occurrences of whatever kind, provided these have 
lasted through successive intervals of time and show 
some diversity of detail. The first of all literary 
instincts is the instinct to narrate ; as a consequence, 
the great national literatures owe their beginning 
in every instance to the story-teller's art. 1 

2. Elements. The texture of most narrative 
is woven of four distinct elements: (a) the thing 
that happened — the element of Plot; (b) the per- 
son or persons to whom it happened — the element 
of Character; (c) the place where it happened — 
the element of Place; (d) the time when it hap- 
pened — the element of Time. 

1 For suggestions in preparing the outlines of rhetorical 
principles, the editor is indebted to Genung and other 
sources of rhetorical theory. 



NARRATION 3 

(a) The Element of Plot. We may use the term 
broadly as equivalent to incident or event, and then 
every narrative has a plot inasmuch as every narra- 
tive tells something that happened. But the term 
has a narrower and more technical sense. Thus 
the newspaper account of a fire, though it answers 
to the definition of narrative composition, lacks plot 
in the technical sense. The flashing headlines let 
us know at the outset the final outcome of the in- 
cident in loss of life and property or in other effects. 
To define, then, the more restricted meaning of the 
term, any grouping of the particulars of an event 
with a view to arouse and sustain the readers inter- 
est and keep him in suspense as to the ultimate issue 
of the action may be called a plot. To help us real- 
ize the nature of plot various analogies have been 
suggested. Thus plot may be conceived either as a 
problem or puzzle to be solved, or as a gathering 
of threads into a knot to be gradually untied, or as 
a struggle of the leading character or characters of 
the action with an obstacle. 

(b) The Element of Character. The plot of a 
narrative is generally dovetailed into the words and 
actions of human beings. The vitality of good nar- 
rative depends in most cases on plot-interest and 
character-interest. As a rule one or the other pre- 
dominates, but both are necessary to the effect 
produced. 

J)ialogue serves (a) to portray character and (b) 
to carry on the action. To express variety of char- 



4 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

acter it aims at variety of style, using for this end 
dialect, mannerism, varying levels of vocabulary and 
diction, and whatever devices of expression may 
serve to mark off one character from another. 

(c, d) The Elements of Time and Place. To- 
gether they make what is called the Situation, i.e., 
the background or setting of the narrative. What 
scenery and stage-effects do for a play, description 
does for a written narrative. It pictures with more 
or less vividness of effect a background of time and 
place for the incidents of the plot. 

3. Structure. Well-organized narrative con- 
forms to the three great structural principles of 
Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis or Mass. Unity, 
which regards the selection of details, requires that 
only those details be embodied in the narrative 
which contribute, directly or indirectly, to develop 
its main idea or theme. Coherence, which regards 
the arrangement of details, requires that these be 
ordered according to a rational principle Of se- 
quence, whether the principle be one of logic or 
time-succession or other kind. Finally Emphasis 
or Mass, which is also a principle of arrangement, 
requires that important details be accorded posi- 
tions of advantage in the text. Such positions are 
notably the beginning and the end. 

4. Style. Force is the typical quality of narra- 
tive style as clearness is of expository and argu- 
mentative style. Narrative aims mostly to interest, 
as exposition aims mostly to inform and argumen- 



THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO 5 

tation to convince. The usual appeal of narrative 
is therefore to the imagination and emotions. 
Hence under the various guises of energy, vigor, 
movement, etc., force, the emotional element of 
style, is the most vital quality of narrative com- 
position. Chief among helps to force of style is 
the free use of concrete, specific, suggestive terms. 

I. THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO 

i. It is not to be supposed that a Saint* upon 
whom lay " the solicitude* of all the Churches " 
should neglect the tradition, which his predecessors 
of so many centuries had bequeathed to him, of zeal 
and hostility against the Turkish power. He was 
only six years on the Pontifical throne, and the 
achievement of which I am going to speak was 
among his last; he died the following year. At 
this time the Ottoman armies were continuing their 
course of victory; they had just taken Cyprus,* 
with the active cooperation of the Greek population 
of the island, and were massacring the Latin no- 
bility and clergy, and mutilating and flaying alive 
the Venetian governor; yet the Saint found it im- 
possible to move Christendom to its own defense. 
How, indeed, was that to be done, when half Chris- 
tendom had become Protestant, and secretly, per- 
haps, felt as the Greeks felt, that the Turk was its 
friend and ally? In such a quarrel, England, 
France, and Germany were out of the question. At 



6 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

length, however, with great effort, he succeeded in 
forming a holy league between himself, King 
Philip* of Spain, and the Venetians ; Don* John of 
Austria, King Philip's half brother, was appointed 
commander-in-chief of the forces ; and Colonna* 
admiral. The treaty was signed on the 24th of 
May, but such was the cowardice and jealousy of 
the parties concerned, that the autumn had arrived 
and nothing of importance was accomplished. With 
difficulty were the armies united ; with difficulty 
were the dissensions of the commanders brought 
to a settlement. Meanwhile . the Ottomans were 
scouring the Gulf of Venice, blockading the ports, 
and terrifying the city itself. 

2. But the holy Pope was securing the success 
of his cause by arms of his own, which the Turks 
understood not. He had been appointing a Triduo* 
of supplication at Rome, and had taken part in the 
procession himself. He had proclaimed a jubilee 
to the whole Christian world, for the happy issue 
of the war. He had been interesting the Holy Vir- 
gin in his cause. He presented to his admiral, after 
High Mass in his chapel, a standard of red damask, 
embroidered with a crucifix, and with the figures 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the legend, In* hoc 
signo vinces. Next, sending to Messina,* where the 
allied fleet lay, he assured the general-in-chief and 
the armament, that " if, relying on divine, rather 
than on human help, they attacked the enemy, God 
would not be wanting to His own cause. He au- 



THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO 7 

gured a prosperous and happy issue; not on any 
light or random hope, but on a divine guidance, 
and by the anticipations of many holy men." More- 
over, he enjoined the officers to look to the good 
conduct of their troops ; to repress swearing, gam- 
ing, riot, and plunder, and thereby to render them 
more deserving of victory. Accordingly, a fast of 
three days was proclaimed for the fleet, beginning 
with the Nativity* of Our Lady ; all the men went 
to confession and communion, and appropriated to 
themselves the plentiful indulgences which the Pope 
attached to the expedition. Then they moved across 
the foot of Italy to Corfu*, with the intention of 
presenting themselves at once to the enemy ; being 
disappointed in their expectations, they turned back 
to the Gulf of Corinth ;* and there at length, on the 
7th of October, they found the Turkish fleet, half- 
way between Lepanto* and the Echiniades* on the 
north, and Patras* in the Morea* on the south ; 
and, though it was towards evening, strong in 
faith and zeal, they at once commenced the 
engagement. 

3. The night before the battle, and the day itself, 
aged as he was, and broken with a cruel malady, 
the Saint had passed in the Vatican in fasting and 
prayer. All through the Holy City the Monasteries 
and the Colleges were in prayer too. As the even- 
ing advanced, the Pontifical Treasurer asked an 
audience of the Sovereign Pontiff on an important 
matter. Pius was in his bed-room and began to 



8 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

converse with him ; when suddenly he stopped the 
conversation, left him, threw up the window, and 
gazed up into heaven. Then closing it again, he 
looked gravely at the official, and said, " This is no 
time for business ; go, return thanks to the Lord 
God. In this very hour our fleet has engaged the 
Turkish, and is victorious ! " As the Treasurer went 
out, he saw him fall on his knees before the altar 
in thankfulness and joy. 

4. And a most memorable victory it was ; up- 
wards of 30,000 Turks are said to have lost their 
lives in the engagement, and 3500 were made 
prisoners. Almost their whole fleet was taken. I 
quote from Protestant authorities when I say that 
the Sultan, on the news of the calamity, neither 
ate, nor drank, nor showed himself, nor saw any- 
one for three days ; that it was the greatest blow 
which the Ottomans had had since Timour's* vic- 
tory over Bajazet,* a century and a half before; 
nay, that it was the turning-point in the Turkish 
history, and that though the Sultans have had iso- 
lated successes since, yet from that day they un- 
deniably and constantly declined ; that they have 
lost their prestige and their self-confidence ; and 
that the victories gained over them since, are but 
the complements and the reverberations of the 
overthrow at Lepanto. (The Turks in Historical 
Sketches, vol. i, p. 155.) 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 9 

Questions and Studies 

Indicate briefly the four elements of Plot, Char- 
acter, Time, Place. Unity. Is there a strict exclu- 
sion of irrelevant details? Unity in narrative is 
secured not so much by the dominance of one main 
incident as by the dominance of one main character. 
What is the dominant character here? With refer- 
ence to what character in particular is the action 
told? Suggest other viewpoints than the one actu- 
ally used. Test § 2 for unity. What is the topic- 
sentence? Coherence. Is there a departure from 
strict chronological order? A desired rhetori- 
cal effect is often secured by compromise between 
conflicting rhetorical principles. Here one struc- 
tural principle is slightly sacrificed to the advan- 
tage of another. Explain. Emphasis. Is there 
an effective beginning? an effective end? Are the 
details well chosen with a view to arouse and main- 
tain interest?' Movement is felt to be the vitalizing 
quality of a good narrative style. Helps to move- 
ment are : a live beginning, omission of unnecessary 
details, suspense maintained to a climax, a brisk 
style. Does the passage use these or similar helps ? 



II. HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD 

There was no room for doubt or for delay. 
" What is to become of you, Callista* ? " he said ; 
" they will tear you to pieces." 

" Fear nothing for me, father," she answered, " I 
am one of them. They know me. Alas, / am no 
Christian! / have not abjured their rites; but you, 
lose not a moment." 

" They are still at some distance," he said, 
" though the wind gives us merciful warning of 
their coming." 

He looked about the room, and took up the books 
of Holy Scripture which were on the shelf. " There 
is nothing else," he said, " of special value here. 
Agellius* could not take them. Here, my child, I 
am going to show you a great confidence. To few 
persons, not Christians, would I show it. Take this 
blessed parchment; it contains the earthly history 
of our Divine Master. Here you will see whom 
we Christians love. Read it; keep it safely; sur- 
render it, when you have the opportunity, into Chris- 
tian keeping. My mind tells me I am not wrong 
in lending it to you." He handed to her the Gospel 
of St. Luke, while he put the other two volumes 
into the folds of his own tunic. 



HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD II 

" One word more," she said ; " your name, should 
I want you." 

He took up a piece of chalk from the shelf, and 
wrote upon the wall in distinct characters, 

" Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus,* Bishop of Carthage.* " 

Hardly had she read the inscription, when the 
voices of several men were heard in the very neigh- 
borhood of the cottage; and hoping to effect a 
diversion in favor of Caecilius, and being at once 
unsuspicious of danger to herself, and careless of 
her life, she ran quickly forward to meet them. 
Caecilius ought to have taken to flight without a 
moment's delay, but a last sacred duty detained 
him. He knelt down and took the pyx from his 
bosom. He had eaten nothing that day; but even 
if otherwise, it was a crisis which allowed him to 
consume the sacred species without fasting. He 
hastily opened the golden case, adored the blessed 
sacrament, and consumed it, purifying its recep- 
tacle, and restoring it to its hiding-place. Then 
he rose at once, and left the cottage. 

He looked about; Callista was nowhere to be 
seen. She was gone; so much was certain, no 
enemy was in sight : it only remained for him to 
make off too. In the confusion he turned in the 
wrong direction ; instead of making off at the back 
of the cottage from which the voices had scared 
him, he ran across the garden into the hollow way. 



12 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

It was all over with him in an instant ; he fell at 
once into the hands of the vanguard of the mob. 

Many mouths were opened upon him all at once. 
" The sorcerer ! " cried one ; " tear him to shreds ; 
we '11 teach him to brew his spells against the city." 
" Give us back our grapes and corn," said a second. 
"Have a guard," said a third; "he can turn you 
into swine or asses, while there is breath in him." 
" Then be the quicker with him," said a fourth, 
who was lifting up a crowbar to discharge upon 
his head. " Hold ! " said a tall swarthy youth, who 
had already warded off several blows from him, 
" hold, will you ? don't you see, if you kill him 
he can't undo the spell. Make him first reverse it 
all; make him take the curse off us. Bring him 
along; take him to Astarte,* Hercules,* or old 
Saturn.* We '11 broil him on a gridiron till he 
turns all these canes into vines, and makes olive 
berries of the pebbles, and turns the dust of the 
earth into fine flour for our eating. When he has 
done all this, he shall dance a jig with a wild cow, 
and sit down to supper with an hyena." 

A loud scream of exultation broke forth from the 
drunken and frantic multitude. " Along with 
him!" continued the same speaker in a jeering 
tone. " Here, put him on the ass, and tie his hands 
behind his back. He shall go back in triumph to 
the city which he loves. Mind and don't touch him 
before the time. If you kill him, you '11 never get 
the curse off. Come here, you priests of Cybele,* " 



HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD 1 3 

he added, " and be his body guard." And he con- 
tinued to keep a vigilant eye and hand over the old 
man, in spite of them. 

The ass, though naturally a good-tempered beast, 
had been most sadly tried through the day. He 
had been fed, indeed, out of mockery, as being the 
Christians' god; but he did not understand the 
shouts and caprices of the crowd, and he only 
waited for an opportunity to show that he by no 
means acquiesced in the proceedings of the day. 
And now the difficulty was to move at all. The 
people kept crowding up the hollow road, and 
blocked the passage; and though the greater part 
of the rioters had either been left behind exhausted 
in Sicca* itself, or had poured over the fields on 
each side of Agellius's cottage, or gone right over 
the hill down into the valley beyond, yet still it was 
some time before the ass could move a step, and a 
time of nervous suspense it was both to Caecilius 
and the youth who befriended him. At length what 
remained of the procession was persuaded to turn 
about and make for Sicca, but in a reversed order. 
It could not be brought round in so confined a space, 
so its rear went first, and the ass and its burden 
came last. As they descended the hill back again, 
Caecilius, who was mounted upon the linen and silk 
which had adorned the Dea* Syra before the Ter- 
tullianist* had destroyed the idol, saw before him 
the whole line of march. In front were flaunted 
the dreadful emblems of idolatry, so far as their 



14 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

bearers were able still to raise them. Drunken 
women, ragged boys mounted on men's shoulders, 
ruffians and bullies, savage-looking Getulians,* half- 
human monsters from the Atlas,* monkeys and curs 
jabbering and howling, mummers,* bacchanals,* 
satyrs, and gesticulators, formed the staple of the 
procession. Midway between the hill which he was 
descending and the city lay the ravine, of which we 
have several times spoken, widening out into the 
plain or Campus Martius* which reached round 
to the steep cliffs on the north. The bridle-path, 
along which he was moving, crossed it just where it 
was opening and became level, so as to present no 
abrupt descent and ascent at the place where the 
path was lowest. On the left every vestige of it 
soon ceased, and a free passage extended to the 
plain. 

The youth who had placed Csecilius on the ass 
still kept close to him; and sung at the pitch of his 
voice, in imitation of the rest : 

" Sporting and snorting in shades of the night, 
His ears pricking up, and his hoofs striking light, 
And his tail whisking round in the speed of his flight." 

" Old man," he continued to Caecilius in a low 
voice, and in Latin, " your curse has not worked 
on me yet." 

" My son," answered the priest, " you are granted 
one day more for repentance." 

" Lucky for you, as well as for me," was the 
reply; and he continued his song: 



HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD 1 5 

" Gurta,* the witch, was out with the rest ; 
Though as lame as a gull,* by his highness possessed, 
She shouldered her crutch, and danced with the best. 

" She stamped and she twirled in the shade of the yew, 
Till her gossips and chums of the city danced too; 
They never are slack when there 's mischief to do. 

" She danced and she coaxed, but he was no fool ; 
He 'd be his own master, he 'd not be her tool; 
Not the little* black moor should send him to school." 

He then turned to Cheilitis, and whispered, " You 
see, old father, that others, besides Christians, can 
forgive and forget. Henceforth call me generous 
Juba.* " And he tossed his head. 

By this time they had got to the bottom of the 
hill, and the deep shadows which filled the hollow 
showed that the sun was rapidly sinking in the west. 
Suddenly, as they were crossing the bottom as it 
opened into the plain, Juba seized and broke the 
thong which bound Caecilius's arms, and bestowing 
a tremendous cut with it upon the side of the ass, 
sent him forward upon the plain at his full speed. 
The asses of Africa can do more on an occasion of 
this kind than our own. Csecilius for the moment 
lost his seat ; but, instantly recovering it, took care 
to keep the animal from flagging; and the cries 
of the mob, and the howling of the priests of Cybele 
cooperated in the task. At length the gloom, in- 
creasing every minute, hid him from their view; 
and even in daylight his recapture would have 



l6 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

been a difficult matter for a wearied-out, famished, 
and intoxicated rabble. Before he well had time 
to return thanks for this unexpected turn of events, 
Csecilius was out of pursuit, and was ambling at a 
pace more suitable to the habits of the beast of bur- 
den that carried him, over an expanse of plain which 
would have been a formidable night-march to a 
fasting man. 

We must not conclude the day without relating 
what was its issue to the persecutors, as well as to 
their intended victim. It is almost a proverb that 
punishment is slow in overtaking crime; but the 
present instance was an exception to the rule. While 
the exiled bishop of Carthage escaped, the crowd, 
on the other hand, were caught in the trap which 
had been laid for them. We have .already said it 
was a ruse on the part of the governing authorities 
of the place to get the rioters out of the city, that 
they might at once be relieved of them, and then 
deal with them just as they might think fit. When 
the mob was once outside the walls, they might be 
refused readmittance, and put down with a strong 
hand. The Roman garrison, who, powerless - to 
quell the tumult in the narrow and winding streets 
and multiplied alleys of the city, had been the 
authors of the maneuver, now took on themselves 
the stern completion of it, and determined to do so 
in the sternest way. Not a single head of all those 
who poured out in the afternoon should return at 
night. It was not to be supposed that the soldiers 



HE SHALL NOT LOSE HIS REWARD 1 7 

had any tenderness for the Christians, but they 
abominated and despised the rabble of the town. 
They were indignant at their rising, thought it a 
personal insult to themselves, and resolved they 
should never do so again. The gates were com- 
monly in the custody of the city guard, but the 
Porta Septimiana, by which the mob passed out, 
was on this occasion claimed by the Romans. It 
was most suitably circumstanced for the use they 
intended to make of it. Immediately outside of it 
was a large court of the same level as the ground 
inside, bordered on the right and left by substantial 
walls, which after a time were drawn to meet each 
other, and contracted the space to the usual breadth 
of a road. The walls continued to run along this 
road for some distance, till they joined the way 
which led to the Campus Martius, and from this 
point the ground was open, till it reached the head 
of the ravine. The soldiers drew up at the gates, 
and as the worn-out and disappointed, brutalized 
and half-idiotic multitudes returned towards it from 
the country, those who were behind pushed on be- 
tween the border walls those who were in front, and, 
while they jammed together their ranks, also made 
escape impossible. It was now that the Roman sol- 
diers began their barbarous, not to say cowardly, 
assault upon them. With heavy maces, with the 
pike, with iron gauntlets, with stones and bricks, 
with clubs, with the scourge, with the sword, with 
the helmet, with whatever came to hand, they com- 



15 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

menced the massacre of that large concourse of 
human beings, who did not offer one blow in return. 
They slaughtered them like sheep ; they trampled 
them down ; they threw the bodies of the wounded 
over the wall. Attempting to run back, numbers of 
the poor wretches came into conflict with the ranks 
behind them, and an additional scene of confusion 
and overthrow took place ; numbers straggled over 
to the open country or woods, and perished, either 
from the weather, or from hunger, or even from 
the wild beasts. Others, weakened by excess and 
famine, fell a prey to the pestilence that was raging. 
After some days a remnant of them was allowed 
silently and timidly to steal back into the city as 
best they could. It was a long day before the Plebs* 
Siccensis ventured to have any opinion of its own 
upon the subject of Christianity, or any other politi- 
cal, social, or ecclesiastical topic whatever. (Cal- 
lista, chap, xx.) 

Questions and Studies 

This selection is the whole of chapter xx of Cal- 
lista. The note of prophecy in the heading of the 
chapter is made good in Tuba's final conversion. 

Situation. Study the passages describing the 
scenes of the two main incidents. Are the descrip- 
tions clear, so that the scenes stand out distinctly 
in the imagination? Character. How much do we 
learn from the chapter of the character of Caecilius? 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES IO. 

of Callista? of the Siccan mob? of the Roman gar- 
rison? Discuss the dialogue. Is it easy and natu- 
ral? significant? Plot. Discuss the elements of 
suspense and climax in the incident of Csecilius's 
escape. 

Is the account of the massacre of the Siccan mob 
narration or description ? Give reasons for answer. 
Movement in narrative style may be quickened, 
e.g., (a) by omission of connectives; (b) by omis- 
sion of descriptive and reflective passages; (c) by 
short, direct, unencumbered sentences. Are these 
or other devices used in the first part of the chapter 
to accelerate the movement? What qualities of an 
effective narrative style are exemplified? 

Do you see anything particularly effective in the 
opening lines ? Do they illustrate any hint or help 
you know of for making a good start in a story? 
Do you note any special force in the last sentence, 
" It was a long day, etc." ? 



III. GURTA AND JUBA 

In the bosom of the woods which stretched for 
many miles from the immediate environs of Sicca, 
and placed on a gravel slope which reached down 
to a brook, which ran in a bottom close by, was a 
small, rude hut, of a kind peculiar to Africa, and 
commonly ascribed to the wandering tribes, who 
neither cared, nor had leisure, for a more stable hab- 
itation. Some might have called it a tent, from the 
goat's-hair cloth with which it was covered; but 
it looked, as to shape, like nothing else than an in- 
verted boat, or the roof of a house set upon the 
ground. Inside it was seen to be constructed of 
the branches of trees, twisted together or wattled, 
the interstices, or rather the whole surface, being 
covered with clay. Being thus stoutly built, lined, 
and covered, it was proof against the tremendous 
rains, to which the climate, for which it was made, 
was subject. Along the center ridge or backbone, 
which varied in height from six to ten feet from 
the ground, it was supported by three posts or pil- 
lars; at one end it rose conically to an open aper- 
ture, which served for chimney, for window, and 
for the purposes of ventilation. Hooks were sus- 
pended from the roof for baskets, articles of cloth- 
ing, weapons, and implements of various kinds; 



GURTA AND JUBA 21 

and a second cone, excavated in the ground with 
the vertex downward, served as a storehouse for 
grain. The door was so low that an ordinary per- 
son must bend double to pass through it. 

However, it was in the winter months only, when 
the rains were profuse, that the owner of this re- 
spectable mansion condescended to creep into it. In 
summer she had a drawing-room, as it may be 
called, of nature's own creation, in which she lived, 
and in one quarter of which she had her lair. Close 
above the hut was a high plot of level turf, sur- 
rounded by old oaks, and fringed beneath with thick 
underwood. In the center of this green rose a yew 
tree of primeval character. Indeed, the whole for- 
est spoke of the very beginnings of the world, as 
if it had been the immediate creation of that Voice 
which bade the earth clothe itself with green life. 
But the place no longer spoke exclusively of its 
Maker. Upon the trees hung the emblems and 
objects of idolatry, and the turf was traced with 
magical characters. Littered about were human 
bones, horns of wild animals, wax figures, sperma^ 
ceti taken from vaults, large nails, to which por- 
tions of flesh adhered, as if they had had to do with 
malefactors, metal plates engraved with strange 
characters, bottled blood, hair of young persons, and 
old rags. The reader must not suppose any incan- 
tation is about to follow, or that the place we are 
describing will have a prominent place in what re- 
mains of our tale; but even if it be the scene of 



22 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

only one conversation, and one event, there is no 
harm in describing it, as it appeared on that 
occasion. 

The old crone, who was seated in this bower of 
delight, had an expression of countenance in keep- 
ing, not with the place, but with the furniture with 
which it was adorned : that furniture told her trade. 
Whether the root of superstition might be traced 
deeper still, and the woman and her traps were 
really and directly connected with the powers be- 
neath the earth, it is impossible to determine : it is 
certain she had the will, it is certain that that will 
was from their inspiration ; nay, it is certain that 
she thought she really possessed the communications 
which she desired ; it is certain, too, she so far 
deceived herself as to fancy that what she learned 
by mere natural means came to her from a diaboli- 
cal source. She kept up an active correspondence 
with Sicca. She was consulted by numbers : she 
was up with the public news, the social gossip, and 
the private and secret transactions of the hour ; and 
had, before now, even interfered in matters of state, 
and had been courted by rival political parties. But 
in the high cares and occupations of this interest- 
ing person, we are not here concerned ; but with a 
conversation which took place between her and 
Tuba, about the same hour of the evening as that 
of Csecilius's escape, but on the day after it, while 
the sun was gleaming almost horizontally through 
the tall trunks of the trees of the forest. 



GURTA AND JUBA 23 

" Well, my precious boy," said the old woman, 
" the choicest gifts of great Cham* be your portion ! 
You had excellent sport yesterday, I '11 warrant. 
The rats squeaked, eh ? and you beat the life out of 
them. That scoundrel sacristan, I suppose, has 
taken up his quarters below." 

" You may say it," answered Juba. " The reptile ! 
he turned right about, and would have made him- 
self an honest fellow, when it couldn't be helped." 

" Good, good ! " returned Gurta, as if she had got 
something very pleasant in her mouth ; " ah ! that 
is good! but he did not escape on that score, I do 
trust." 

" They pulled him to pieces all the more cheer- 
fully," said Juba. 

" Pulled him to pieces, limb by limb, joint by 
joint, eh? " answered Gurta. " Did they skin him? 
— did they do anything to his eyes, or his tongue? 
Anyhow, it was too quickly, Juba. Slowly, lei- 
surely, gradually. Yes, it 's like a glutton to be 
quick about it. Taste him, handle him, play with 
him, — that 's luxury ! but to bolt him, — faugh ! " 

" Caeso's slave made a good end," said Juba : " he 
stood up for his views, and died like a man." 

" The gods smite him ! but he has gone up, — 
up : " and she laughed. " Up to what they call bliss 
and glory ; — such glory ! but he 's out of their 
domain, you know. But he did not die easy ? " 

" The boys worried him a good deal," answered 
Juba : " but it 's not quite in my line, mother, all 



24 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

this. I think you drink a pint of blood morning and 
evening - , and thrive on it, old woman. It makes 
you merry ; but it 's too much for my stomach." 

" Ha, ha, my boy ! " cried Gurta ; " you '11 im- 
prove in time, though you make wry faces, now that 
you 're young. Well, and have you brought me 
any news from the capitol? Is anyone getting a 
rise in the world, or a downfall? How blows the 
wind? Are there changes in the camp? This 
Decius,* I suspect, will not last long." 

"They, all seem desperately frightened," said 
Tuba, " lest they should not smite your friends hard 
enough, Gurta. Root and branch is the word. 
They '11 have to make a few Christians for the 
occasion, in order to kill them : and I almost think 
they 're about it," he added, thoughtfully. " They 
have to show that they are not surpassed by the 
rabble. 'T is a pity Christians are so few, isn't it, 
mother ? " 

" Yes, yes," she said ; " but we must crush them, 
grind them, many or few : and we shall, we shall ! 
Callista 's to come." 

" I don't see they are worse than other people," 
said Tuba ; " not at all, except that they are com- 
monly sneaks. If Callista turns, why should not 
I turn too, mother, to keep her company, and keep 
your hand in ? " 

" No, no, my boy," returned the witch, " you must 
serve my master. You are having your fling just 
now, but you will buckle to in good time. You 



GURTA AND JUBA 25 

must one day take some work with my merry men. 
Come here, child," said the fond mother, " and let 
me kiss you." 

" Keep your kisses for your monkeys, and goats, 
and cats," answered Juba : " they 're not to my 
taste, old dame. Master ! my master ! I won't have 
a master ! I '11 be nobody's servant. I '11 never 
stand to be hired, nor cringe to a bully, nor quake 
before a rod. Please yourself, Gurta ; I 'm a free 
man. You 're my mother by courtesy only." 

Gurta looked at him savagely. " Why you 're not 
going to be pious and virtuous, Juba? A choice 
saint you '11 make ! You shall be drawn for a 
picture." 

" Why shouldn't I, if I choose? " said Juba. " If 
I must take service, willy, nilly, I 'd any day prefer 
the other's to that of your friend. I 've not left the 
master to take the man." 

" Blaspheme not the great gods," she answered, 
" or they '11 do you a mischief yet." 

" I say again," insisted Juba, " if I must lick the 
earth, it shall not be where your friend has trod. It 
shall be in my brother's fashion, rather than in 
yours, Gurta." 

" Agellius ! " she shrieked out with such dis- 
gust that it is wonderful she uttered the name at 
all. " Ah ! you have not told me about him, boy. 
Well, is he safe in the pit, or in the stomach of an 
hyena? " 

" He 's alive," said Juba ; " but he has not got it 



26 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

in him to be a Christian. Yes, he 's safe with his 
uncle." 

" Ah ! Jucundus must ruin him, debauch him, and 
then we must make away with him. We must not 
be in a hurry," said Gurta, " it must be body and 
soul." 

" No one shall touch him, craven as he is," 
answered Juba. " I despise him, but let him 
alone." 

" Don't come across me," said Gurta, sullenly ; 
" I '11 have my way. Why, you know I could smite 
you to the dust, as well as him, if I chose." 

" But you have not asked me about Callista," an- 
swered Juba. " It is really a capital joke, but she 
has got into prison for certain, for being a Chris- 
tian. Fancy it ! they caught her in the streets, and 
put her in the guard-house, and have had her up 
for examination. You see they want a Christian for 
the nonce: it would not do to have none such in 
prison ; so they will flourish with her till Decius 
bolts from the scene." 

" The furies have her ! " cried Gurta : " she is 
a Christian, my boy : I told you so, long ago." 

" Callista a Christian ! " answered Juba, " ha ! ha ! 
She and Agellius are going to make a match of it, 
of some sort or other. They 're thinking of other 
things than paradise." 

" She and the old priest, more likely, more likely," 
said Gurta. " He 's in prison with her, — in the 
pit, as I trust." 



GURTA AND JUBA 2J 

"Your master has cheated you for once, old 
woman," said Juba. 

Gurta looked at him fiercely, and seemed waiting 
for his explanation. He began singing: 

" She wheedled and coaxed, but he was no fool ; 
He 'd be his own master, he 'd not be her tool ; 
Not the little black moor should send him to school. 

" She foamed and she cursed, — 't was the same thing to 
him; 
She laid well her trap; but he carried his whim: — 
The priest scuffled off, safe in life and in limb." 

Gurta was almost suffocated with passion. " Cyp- 
rianus has not escaped, boy ? " she asked at length. 

" I got him off," said Juba, undauntedly. 

A shade, as of Erebus,* passed over the witch's 
face; but she remained quite silent. 

" Mother, I am my own master," he continued. 
" I must break your assumption of superiority. I 'm 
not a boy, though you call me so. I '11 have my own 
way. Yes, I saved Cyprianus. You 're a blood- 
thirsty old hag! Yes, I've seen your secret doings. 
Did not I catch you the other day, practicing on 
that little child? You had nailed him up by hands 
and feet against the tree, and were cutting him to 
pieces at your leisure, as he quivered and shrieked 
the while. You were examining or using his liver 
for some of your black purposes. It 's not in my 
line ; but you gloated over it ; and when he wailed, 



28 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

you wailed in mimicry. You were panting with 
pleasure." 

Gurta was still silent, and had an expression on 
her face, awful from the intensity of its malignity. 
She had uttered a low piercing whistle. 

" Yes ! " continued Juba, " you reveled in it. You 
chattered to the poor babe, when it screamed, as a 
nurse to an infant. You called it pretty names, and 
squeaked out your satisfaction each time you stuck 
it. You old hag ! I 'm not of your breed, though 
they say I am of your blood. / don't fear you," he 
said, observing the expression of her countenance, 
" I don't fear the immortal devil ! " And he con- 
tinued his song: 

" She beckoned the moon, and the moon came down ; 
The green earth shriveled beneath her frown; 
But a man's strong will can keep his own." 

While he was talking and singing, her call had 
been answered from the hut. An animal of some 
wonderful species had crept out of it, and proceeded 
to creep and crawl, mowing and twisting as it 
went, along the trees and shrubs which rounded the 
grass plot. When it came up to the old woman, 
it crouched at her feet, and then rose up upon its 
hind legs and begged. She took hold of the un- 
couth beast and began to fondle it in her arms, mut- 
tering something in its ear. At length, when Juba 
stopped for a moment in his song, she suddenly flung 
it right at him, with great force, saying, " Take 



GURTA AND JUBA 20, 

that ! " She then gave utterance to a low inward 
laugh, and leaned herself back against the trunk 
of the tree under which she was sitting, with her 
knees drawn up almost to her chin. 

The blow seemed to act on Juba as a shock on his 
nervous system, both from its violence and its 
strangeness. He stood still for a moment, and then, 
without saying a word, he turned away, and walked 
slowly down the hill, as if in a maze. Then he sat 
down. . . . 

In an instant up he started again with a great cry, 
and began running at the top of his speed. He 
thought he heard a voice speaking in him ; and, 
however fast he ran, the voice, or whatever it was, 
kept up with him. He rushed through the under- 
wood, trampling and crushing it under his feet, and 
scaring the birds and small game which lodged 
there. At last, exhausted, he stood still for breath, 
when he heard it say loudly and deeply, as if speak- 
ing with his own organs, " You cannot escape from 
yourself ! " Then a terror seized him ; he fell 
down and fainted away. 

When his senses returned, his first impression was 
of something in him not himself. He felt it in his 
breathing ; he tasted it in his mouth. The brook 
which ran by Gurta's encampment had by this time 
become a streamlet, though still shallow. He 
plunged into it ; a feeling came upon him as if he 
ought to drown himself, had it been deeper. He 
rolled about in it, in spite of its flinty and rocky bed. 



30 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

When he came out of it, his tunic sticking to him, 
he tore it off his shoulders, and let it hang round 
his girdle in shreds, as it might. The shock of the 
water, however, acted as a sedative upon him, and 
the coolness of the night refreshed him. He walked 
on for a while in silence. 

Suddenly the power within him began uttering, 
by means of his organs of speech, the most fearful 
blasphemies, words embodying conceptions which, 
had they come into his mind, he might indeed have 
borne with patience before this, or uttered in bra- 
vado, but which now filled him with inexpressible 
loathing, and a terror to which he had hitherto been 
quite a stranger. He had always in his heart be- 
lieved in a God, but he now believed with a reality 
and intensity utterly new to him. He felt it as if 
he saw Him ; he felt there was a world of good and 
evil beings. He did not love the good, or hate the 
evil ; but he shrank from the one, and he was terri- 
fied at the other; and he felt himself carried away, 
against his will, as the prey of some dreadful, mys- 
terious power, which tyrannized over him. (Cal- 
lista, chaps, xxiii, xxiv.) 



Questions and Studies 

Situation. Shifting of the viewpoint must be 
indicated to the reader directly or otherwise (cf. 
p. 29). See an instance in point in the picture of 
Gurta's hut. The situation not only provides a 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 3 1 

background for the plot, but may also suggest the 
mood of the action. Does the description of Gurta's 
" drawing-room " in the woods suggest the mood of 
the subsequent action ? How ? Character. Analyze 
the characters of Gurta and Juba as far as made 
known. Note, in Gurta's case, the knowledge we 
get of her from her gruesome quarters in the woods, 
her conversation, her deeds. Is the portrayal of her 
consistent in all details? Is it graphic, so as to im- 
press the imagination ? " Concrete portrayal " is 
portrayal which shows us persons saying and doing 
characteristic things. Its method, therefore, is dis- 
tinct from that indirect method which is satisfied 
merely to tell us characteristic things about the per- 
sons. Are the portrayals of Gurta and Juba con- 
crete in this sense? Dialogue. Dialogue serves two 
ends : it forwards the plot and it portrays character. 
Are both ends served here? Is the dialogue inter- 
esting? lively? significant? Plot. Study carefully 
the elements of suspense and climax. Is interest 
roused and maintained? Is the action progressive? 
swift in movement? What incident forms the dra- 
matic center of the action? Skillful handling of 
suspense and climax requires proper subordination 
of details. Is this principle looked to? Style. Sum 
up the characteristics of a typical narrative style 
and determine to what extent they are realized in 
this selection. 



IV. THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND 
AND IRELAND 

We must enlarge on these Northmen,* from the 
course which their history takes in the sequel. 
Their chiefs, then, called the sea-kings, were the 
younger sons of the petty princes of Scandinavia, 
sent out to seek their fortunes and to win glory 
upon the wide ocean, with the outfit of a vessel and 
its equipments. They ravaged far and wide at will, 
and no retaliation on them was possible; for these 
pirates, unlike their more civilized brethren of Al- 
giers or of Greece, had not a yard of territory, a 
town, or a fort, no property besides their vessels, 
no subjects but their crews. They were not allowed 
either to inherit or transmit the booty which these 
piratical expeditions collected. Such personal pos- 
sessions, even to the gold and silver, were buried 
with the plunderer. Never to sleep under a smoke- 
burnished roof, never to fill the cup over the cheer- 
ful hearth, was their boast and their principle. If 
they drank, it was not for indulgence or for good 
company ; but, by a degrading extravagance, to 
rival the beasts of prey and blood in their wild bru- 
tality. Their berserkirs, half madmen, half magi- 
cians, studied to imitate dogs, or wolves, or bears, 

32 



THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND 33 

in their methods of attack, tearing off their clothes, 
howling, gnawing their armor, till they collapsed 
from the violence of their preternatural ferocity. 

2. Though the sea was their element, they were 
equally prepared to avail themselves of the land, 
and equally at home upon it. They seemed to have 
a ubiquitous presence. As the lightning, the hurri- 
cane, or the plague sweeps through its inevitable 
circuit, or hurries along its capricious zigzag path, 
so these marauders were at one time lurking in the 
deep creek, and darting out upon the unsuspecting 
voyager, at another hurrying along the coast, mak- 
ing their sudden descent and as suddenly reembark- 
ing; and at another, landing, leaving their vessels, 
and running up the country. They had come and 
gone, and done their terrible work, before they 
could be encountered. Now they were on the Ger- 
man Sea, now in the Bay of Biscay, now in the 
Mediterranean. They were at Rouen,* at Amiens,* 
at Paris, on the Loire,* in Burgundy.* They were 
in Brittany,* in Aquitaine,* at Bordeaux.* They 
landed on the coast near Cadiz,* and faced the 
Moorish* monarch in three battles. Then, again, 
they were at Holland, on the Walcheren,* at Cam- 
bray,* at Hainault,* at Louvain,* and other parts 
of Belgium. They set fire to the villages and to the 
crops ; they massacred the peasantry ; they cruci- 
fied, they impaled ; they spitted infants on their 
lances ; cruelty was one of the glories of their 
warfare. 



34 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

3. But England and Ireland, as first meeting 
them in their descent to the South, bore the brunt 
of their fury. The two islands could not escape the 
common lot ; ruin had overtaken the Continent in 
the earlier centuries, and now their turn was come. 
It is scarcely necessary to trace out the particulars 
of that awful visitation, under which two nations, 
who had been rivals in saintly memories, became 
rivals also in the depth of a spiritual degradation ; 
a degradation which made them reckless and des- 
perate, and ungrateful to the record of God's past 
mercies and their fathers' noble deeds. England for 
two hundred and fifty years, and Ireland for an 
additional hundred, were the prey, the victims, the 
bond-slaves of these savage Northmen. What hap- 
pened to one country, happened on the whole to the 
other; and what we have already said of their foe 
in his descent upon other countries, might enable us 
to compose a history of his dealings with these, 
though no chronicle remain to tell it. The North- 
man pillaged the great monastery of Banchor,* and 
slaughtered or scattered its inmates ; he burned 
Armagh* and its cathedral ; he burned Ferns,* and 
Kildare* with its famous church ; he sacked Cork ;* 
he wasted the whole of Connaught.* He cast his 
anchors in the Boyne* and Liffey,* and then spread 
his devastations inland over the plains through 
which those rivers flow, plundering churches, mon- 
asteries, villages, and carrying off the flocks and 
herds as booty. In the long course of years no 



THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND 35 

part of the island escaped ; bishops were put to 
death, sacred vessels profaned and carried off, li- 
braries destroyed. When at length the miserable 
population submitted from mere exhaustion, and 
when war seemed at an end, for resistance was im- 
possible, and provisions were consumed, then the 
invading tribes quarreled with each other, and a 
new course of conflicts and devastations followed. 

4. As to England, who does not know the ter- 
rible epic, so it may be called, of the eighth and ninth 
centuries? How Ragnar* Lodbrog, in opposition 
to his wife Aslauga's counsel, built two large ships 
in his pride, which were useless in the hour of de- 
feat, when swiftness of flight was as necessary to 
him as vigor in attack ; and how these clumsy ves- 
sels were wrecked on the Northumbrian* coast, and 
Ragnar taken prisoner; and lastly, how the bar- 
barous Ella,* the prince of the district, doomed his 
fallen enemy to die in prison by the stings of ven- 
omous snakes? His Quida, or death-song, as he is 
supposed to sing it in his dungeon, is preserved, and 
traces out the history of those savage exploits which 
were his sole comfort when he was giving up his 
soul to his Maker. Fifty-one times, as he recounts, 
had he rallied his people around his uplifted lance; 
and he died in the joyful thought that his sons 
would avenge him. He was not wrong in that 
belief. Alfred* was a youth of nineteen in his 
brother's court, when the news came that eight kings 
and twenty earls, or relations or friends of Ragnar, 



36 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

headed by three of his sons, of whom the cruel Ing- 
war and Hubba were two, had landed on the east 
coast. They moved to York,* gained possession of 
Ella, split him into the form of a spread eagle, and 
rubbed salt into his wounds. Next they got posses- 
sion of Nottingham.* Then they were back again 
into Lincolnshire,* desolating and destroying the 
whole face of the country. They burned the famous 
abbeys Bardeney* and Croyland,* and tortured and 
murdered the monks. Then they went to Peterbor- 
ough* and to Ely,* where the nuns, according to 
the well-known history, mutilated their faces to pre- 
serve their honor. Then they fought, defeated, cap- 
tured, tortured, and martyred St. Edmund.* Next 
they got possession of Reading.* We mention 
these familiar facts not for their own sake, but to 
illustrate that fearful celerity and almost caprice 
of locomotion, with which they rushed to and fro 
about the country. At Reading they were met by 
Alfred, who shortly after succeeded to the throne 
of Wessex,* and who in the first year of his royal 
power fought eight pitched battles with them. Such 
is our introduction to the romantic history of that 
celebrated king. (The Northmen and Normans in 
England and Ireland in Historical Sketches, vol. iii, 
pp. 268-272.) 

Questions and Studies 

In description of character, as elsewhere, New- 
man is concrete. Study §§ 1 and 2 for definite, con- 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 37 

crete details. Though §§ 2, 3, and 4 are narrative 
in form, they are meant to illustrate certain traits 
of Northman warfare. " We mention these familiar 
facts not for their own sake, but to illustrate that 
fearful celerity and almost caprice of locomotion, 
with which they rushed to and fro about the coun- 
try " (§4). To what type of discourse, then, do 
these paragraphs belong (in scope or purpose) ? 
Observe the wealth of proper names. What do they 
add to the narrative? What suggestion is there in 
the rapid movement of the sentences in §§ 2, 3, and 
4? "Alfred was a youth of nineteen, etc." (§ 4). 
To what is the quick, accelerated movement of this 
passage due? Would you describe the style as 
vivid? Analyze the notion of " vividness" in style 
and determine for yourself the conditions on which 
it depends. 



V. THE DEATH OF ST. BEDE 

Here the beautiful character in life and death of 
St. Bede* naturally occurs to the mind, who is, in 
his person and his writings, as truly the pattern of a 
Benedictine, as is St. Thomas* of a Dominican ; and 
with an extract from the letter of Cuthbert* to 
Cuthwin concerning his last hours, which, familiarly 
as it is known, is always pleasant to read, I break 
off my subject for the present. 

" He was exceedingly oppressed," says Cuthbert 
of St. Bede, " with shortness of breathing, though 
without pain, before Easter Day, for about a fort- 
night ; but he rallied, and was full of joy and glad- 
ness, and gave thanks to Almighty God day and 
night, and every hour, up to Ascension Day; and 
he gave us, his scholars, daily lectures, and passed 
the rest of the day in singing the Psalms, and the 
night, too, in joy and thanksgiving, except the 
scanty time which he gave to sleep. And as soon 
as he woke he was busy in his customary way, and 
he never ceased, with uplifted hands, giving thanks 
to God. I solemnly protest, never have I seen or 
heard of anyone who was so diligent in thanks- 
giving. 

" He sang that sentence of the Blessed Apostle 
Paul, ' It* is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands 
38 



THE DEATH OF ST. BEDE 39 

of the Living God,' and many other passages of 
Scripture, in which he warned us to shake off the 
slumber of the soul, by anticipating our last hour. 
And he sang some verses of his own in English also, 
to the effect that no one could be too well prepared 
for his end, viz., in calling to mind, before he de- 
parts hence, what good or evil he has done, and how 
his judgment will lie. And he sang too the anti- 
phons, of which one is, ' O* King of glory, Lord of 
Angels, who this day hast ascended in triumph above 
all the heavens, leave us not orphans, but send the 
promise of the Father upon us, the Spirit of Truth. 
Alleluia.' And when he came to the words, ' leave 
us not orphans,' he burst into tears, and wept much. 
He said, too, ' God* scourgeth every son whom He 
receiveth ' and, with St. Ambrose,* ' I have not so 
lived as to be ashamed to have been among you, 
nor do I fear to die, for we have a good Lord.' 

" In those days, besides our lectures and the 
Psalmody, he was engaged in two works ; he was 
translating into English the Gospel of St. John, as 
far as the words, ' But* what are these among so 
many ' and some extracts from the ' Notse* of Isi- 
dore.' On the Tuesday before Ascension Day, he 
began to suffer still more in his breathing, and his 
feet were slightly swollen. However, he went 
through the day, dictating cheerfully, and he kept 
saying from time to time, ' Take down what I say 
quickly, for I know not how long I am to last, or 
whether my Maker will not take me soon.' He 



40 TROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

seemed to us to be quite aware of the time of his 
going, and he passed that night in giving of thanks, 
without sleeping. As soon as morning broke, that 
is on the Wednesday, he urged us to make haste 
with the writing which he had begun. We did so 
till nine o'clock, when we walked in procession with 
the Relics of the Saints, according to the usage of 
that day. But one of our party said to him, ' Dear- 
est Master, one chapter is still wanting; can you 
bear our asking you about it ? ' He answered, ' I 
can bear it ; take your pen and be ready, and write 
quickly.' At three o'clock he said to me, ' Run fast, 
and call our priests, that I may divide among them 
some little gifts, which I have in my box.' When 
I had done this in much agitation, he spoke to each, 
urging and entreating them all to make a point of 
saying masses and prayers for him. Thus he passed 
the day in joy until the evening, when the above- 
named youth said to him, ' Dear master, there is yet 
one sentence not written ! ' He answered, ' Write 
quickly.' Presently the youth said, ' Now it is writ- 
ten ' ; he replied, ' Good, thou hast said the truth, 
consummatum* est; take my head into thy hands, 
for it is very pleasant to me to sit facing my old 
praying place, and thus to call upon my Father.' 
And so, on the floor of his cell, he sang, ' Glory be 
to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,' and just as he 
had said, ' Holy Ghost ' he breathed his last, and 
went to the realms above." (Mission of St. Bene- 
dict in Historical Sketches, vol. ii, p. 428.) 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 41 



Questions and Studies 

This passage forms the conclusion of Newman's 
essay on The Mission of St. Benedict, written in 
1858. It gives us what is apparently Newman's own 
translation or paraphrase of Cuthbert's letter to 
Cuthwin. Other versions of the same letter may be 
found in the Bohn edition of Bede's Ecclesiastical 
History and in Butler's Lives of the Saints, May 2J. 

Does the narrative show suspense and climax? 
unity ? How is unity safeguarded ? Is there proper 
massing of details ? Note the repeated " ands." 
What effect have they on the style of the passage? 
Is the effect of the passage due to the incidents 
themselves or to the manner in which they are told 
or to both? Do you find the narrative interesting? 
If so, what do you think makes it interesting? 

In composition, as in every other art, success begins 
with imitation. (Read the excellent Introduction to Imi- 
tation and Analysis by F. P. Donnelly, SJ. (Allyn and 
Bacon). But a word of caution is necessary. Literary 
imitation of the right kind does not aim at reproducing 
the intimately personal traits of another's writing. It 
aims rather to make another's writing yield up under 
close scrutiny and analysis certain laws, principles, meth- 
ods, and devices of expression of which no writer has a 
monopoly, but which lie at the very root of all effective 
speech. Classic literature has other and better uses than 
to supply the student with models of good writing, but 
the student of composition as such turns to classic litera- 
ture precisely because it realizes with obvious success 



42 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

those very laws and methods of expression which he 
himself must attend to in the presentation of his own 
thought under penalty of failure. From Selections i-v 
may be gathered practical hints regarding such elements 
of narrative writing, as suspense and climax (n, in), 
unity of treatment (i), background (in), character-por- 
trayal (in, iv, v), dialogue (in, v), vividness of style 
(n, in), accelerated movement of style (iv). 



B. DESCRIPTION 

I. Definition. Description is a form of dis- 
course which pictures individual, concrete objects, 
material or spiritual. Note the terms of this 
definition : 

(a) Pictures. Description is portrayal by 
means of words, as painting is portrayal by means 
of color. Hence the perfect analogy between liter- 
ary description and the pictorial arts. Problems of 
scale, viewpoint, perspective, light and shadow, se- 
lection of details, etc., confront the word-artist just 
as they do the painter. 

(b) Individual, Concrete Objects. Exposition 
deals with types, classes, general ideas and objects ; 
in other words, it deals with things, not precisely 
as they strike the senses, but as modified by various 
processes of mental abstraction and classification. 
Description, on the other hand, is an attempt to 
fix in words the very aspect or outward seeming 
of an object as it impresses the eye or ear or other 
sense. Therefore description looks to the individ- 
ual, exposition, to the type. One exception must be 
noted. Language can attempt to give a meaning 

43 



44 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

or interpretation to a concrete thing. In this case, 
though one deals with the concrete, the result is 
exposition, not description. 

(c) Material or Spiritual. All concrete objects 
are not material. A man's character is a thing in- 
dividual, concrete, and also spiritual. Character, 
therefore, or a particular virtue or vice or mental 
state in an individual or any other immaterial reality- 
may be an object of description. 

2. Types, (a) Description by Inventory. An 
accurate, mechanical enumeration of details without 
literary embellishment. This is the type of descrip- 
tion ordinarily met with in guide-books, catalogues, 
text-books, encyclopedias, etc. 

(b) Description by Impression. Here the aim is 
to reproduce in words the dominant impression 
made on the observer by the object or scene before 
him. Looking out, for example, over a stretch of 
bleak, uninviting country, I may sum up all my im- 
pressions in the one fundamental note of cheerless- 
ness. If now I proceed to describe the scene with 
the design that my word-picture of it impress others 
as the reality impressed me, I shall embody in my 
description chiefly such details as heighten the im- 
pression of cheerlessness, while details that make 
for other effects will be excluded. Impressionistic 
portrayal is, then, necessarily personal and subjec- 
tive and as such lends itself at once to literary 
treatment. 

(c) Description by Suggestion. A few details, 



DESCRIPTION 45 

but these of high connotative or suggestive power, 
make up the portrayal. The virtue of suggestion 
as a literary method lies in the stimulus it affords 
the imagination, which responds by automatically 
conjuring up images, sensations, past experiences, 
etc., linked by subtle bonds of association with the 
few explicit details set down on paper. Because the 
imagination is thus engaged, the result is a vivid- 
ness of portrayal not often realized when details are 
multiplied. Classic instances of this type of de- 
scription are found in Coleridge's Ancient Mariner: 

" All in a hot and copper sky 
The bloody sun at noon 
Right up above the ship did stand 
No bigger than the moon." 

3. Problems. Three problems are before us 
when we describe, — those of (a) viewpoint, (b) 
outline or fundamental image, and (c) choice of 
details. 

(a) Point of View. The landscape-painter, be- 
fore starting to put a scene on canvas, first selects 
his point of view. In like manner the portrayer in 
words must take up and retain some definite view- 
point with reference to the object described ; other- 
wise there is no unity of portrayal, no clear and 
consistent picture. Still, a shift of viewpoint may 
be legitimate and even necessary at times, as in de- 
scribing the interior of a house ; but directly or in- 
directly, the shift must be brought to the reader's 
notice. 



46 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

(b) Fundamental Image. Answering to a rough 
outline map in geography, some one broad, out- 
standing trait of the object portrayed is seized upon 
to serve as a setting or framework for the rest of 
the description. Such broad, outstanding trait may 
not easily be found, nor is the presence of it essen- 
tial to good description. Sometimes by fundamental 
image is understood merely the first or general im- 
pression which the object or scene makes upon the 
observer. 

(c) Choice of Details. This will be conditioned 
by the point of view, by the fundamental image, and 
especially by the unity of impression which the 
writer seeks to create. It is plain that all the know- 
able particulars of a given object cannot be em- 
bodied in a description. A selection must be made 
in accordance with a principle of choice. 

4. Style. Success in descriptive writing is very 
much a matter of choice of words. The picturing 
resources of language must be drawn upon. Such 
are: (a) the epithet or descriptive adjective — 
" better than pages of inventory description when 
vividness of conception is needed" (Genung) ; 
(b) figures, as simile, metaphor, personification, 
metonymy, etc.; (c) the various sound-effects of 
words, as melody, rhythm, alliteration, etc. 

Therefore picturesqneness or vividness is the typ- 
ical quality of good descriptive writing. 



VI. ATTICA 

A confined triangle, perhaps fifty miles its great- 
est length, and thirty its greatest breadth ; two 
elevated rocky barriers meeting at an angle ; three 
prominent mountains, commanding the plain, — 
Parnes,* Pentelicus,* and Hymettus ;* an unsatis- 
factory soil ; some streams, not always full ; — such 
is about the report which the agent of a London 
Company would have made of Attica.* He would 
report that the climate was mild, the hills were 
limestone ; there was plenty of good marble ; more 
pasture land than at first survey might have been 
expected, sufficient certainly for sheep and goats ; 
fisheries productive; silver mines once, but long 
since worked out ; figs fair ; oil first-rate ; olives 
in profusion. But what he would not think of not- 
ing down was, that that olive tree was so choice in 
nature and so noble in shape that it excited a re- 
ligious veneration, and that it took so kindly to the 
light soil as to expand into woods upon the open 
plain, and to climb up and fringe the hills. He 
would not think of writing word to his employer 
how that clear air, of which I have spoken, brought 
out, yet blended and subdued, the colors on the 
marble, till they had a softness and harmony, for 
47 



48 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

all their richness, which in a picture looks exagger- 
ated, yet is after all within the truth. He would 
not tell how that same delicate and brilliant at- 
mosphere freshened up the pale olive, until the olive 
forgot its monotony, and its cheek glowed like the 
arbutus or beech of the Umbrian* hills. He would 
say nothing of the thyme and thousand fragrant 
herbs which carpeted Hymettus ; he would hear 
nothing of the hum of its bees, nor take much ac- 
count of the rare flavor of its honey, since Gozo* 
and Minorca* were sufficient for the English de- 
mand. He would look over the ^Egean* from the 
height he had ascended ; he would follow with his 
eye the chain of islands, which, starting from the 
Simian* headland, seemed to offer the fabled divin- 
ities of Attica, when they would visit their Ionian* 
cousins, a sort of viaduct thereto across the sea; 
but that fancy would not occur to him, nor any 
admiration of the dark violet billows with their 
white edges down below; nor of those graceful, 
fan-like jets of silver upon the rocks, which slowly 
rise aloft like water spirits from the deep, then 
shiver and break, and spread and shroud themselves, 
and disappear, in a soft mist of foam ; nor of the 
gentle, incessant heaving and panting of the whole 
liquid plain ; nor of the long waves, keeping steady 
time, like a line of soldiery, as they resound upon 
the hollow shore — he would not deign to notice 
that restless living element at all, except to bless 
his stars that he was not upon it. Nor the distinct 



ATTICA 49 

detail, nor the refined coloring, nor the graceful out- 
line and roseate golden line of the jutting crags, 
nor the bold shadows cast from Otus* or Laurium* 
by the declining sun — our agent of a mercantile 
firm would not value these matters even at a low 
figure. Rather we must turn for the sympathy we 
seek to yon pilgrim student, come from a semi-bar- 
barous land to that small corner of the earth, as to 
a shrine, where he might take his fill of gazing on 
those emblems and coruscations of invisible, unorig- 
inate perfection. It was that stranger from a re- 
mote province, from Britain* or from Mauritania,* 
who in a scene so different from that of his chilly, 
woody swamps or of his fiery, choking sands, 
learned at once what a real University must be, by 
coming to understand the sort of country which 
was its suitable home. (Historical Sketches, vol. 
iii, p. 20.) 

Questions and Studies 

What type of description does the passage, as a 
whole, illustrate? Justify your answer. Is there 
any instance of description by inventory ? Indicate, 
if possible, a fundamental image or its equivalent. 
(Recall that a fundamental image is either some 
broad, inclusive trait serving the purpose of a 
framework or core for the details of the description, 
or else the first or general impression made by the 
object to be described.) What feature of Attica 
does the author emphasize as the most significant? 



50 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

Is the point of view fixed or shifting? Why does 
the agent of the London Company fail to appreciate 
certain aspects of the country ? Why do these same 
aspects appeal to the pilgrim student ? What do you 
think of the contrasted viewpoints of the London 
agent and the pilgrim student as a descriptive 
device? 

Unity. Any irrelevant or useless details? Co- 
herence. Are the details ordered according to a 
principle or plan ? Mass or Emphasis. Is the plac- 
ing of the details effective, i.e., with reference to 
the impression which the writer wishes to convey? 
A well-massed description will require, among other 
things, that beginning and end be such as to impress 
the reader. 

Discuss the use of epithet, of. imagery, of rhythm. 
Do these elements help the description to realize its 
purpose and in what way? 



VII. SICCA VENERIA 

i. In no province of the vast Roman empire, as 
it existed in the middle of the third century, did 
nature wear a richer or a more joyous garb than 
she displayed in Proconsular Africa, a territory of 
which Carthage was the metropolis, and Sicca 
might be considered the center. The latter city, 
which was the seat of a Roman colony, lay upon 
a precipitous or steep bank, which led up along a 
chain of hills to a mountainous tract in the direction 
of the north and east. In striking contrast with this 
wild and barren region was the view presented by 
the west and south, where for many miles stretched 
a smiling champaign, exuberantly wooded, and va- 
ried with a thousand hues, till it was terminated at 
length by the successive tiers of the Atlas, and 
the dim and fantastic forms of the Numidian* 
mountains. The immediate neighborhood of the 
city was occupied by gardens, vineyards, cornfields, 
and meadows, crossed or encircled here by noble 
avenues of trees or the remains of primeval forests, 
there by the clustering groves which wealth and 
luxury had created. This spacious plain, though 
level when compared with the northern heights by 
which the city was backed, and the peaks and crags 

51 



52 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

which skirted the southern and western horizon, 
was discovered, as light and shadow traveled with 
the sun, to be diversified with hill and dale, upland 
and hollow ; while orange gardens, orchards, olive 
and palm plantations held their appropriate sites on 
the slopes or the bottoms. Through the mass of 
green, which extended still more thickly from the 
west round to the north, might be seen at intervals 
two solid causeways tracking their persevering 
course to the Mediterranean coast, the one to the 
ancient rival of Rome, the other to Hippo* Regius 
in Numidia. Tourists might have complained of 
the absence of water from the scene ; but the native 
peasant would have explained to them that the eye 
alone had reason to be discontented, and that the 
thick foliage and the uneven surface did but conceal 
what mother earth with no niggard bounty supplied. 
The Bagradas,* issuing from the spurs of the At- 
las, made up in depth what it wanted in breadth of 
bed, and plowed the rich and yielding mold with 
its rapid stream, till, after passing Sicca in its way, 
it fell into the sea near Carthage. It was but the 
largest of a multitude of others, most of them 
tributaries to it, deepening as much as they in- 
creased it. While channels had been cut from the 
larger rills for the irrigation of the open land, 
brooks, which sprang up in the gravel which lay 
against the hills, had been artificially banked with 
cut stones or paved with pebbles ; and, where 
neither springs nor rivulets were to be found, wells 



SICCA VENERIA 53 

had been dug, sometimes to the vast depth of as 
much as 200 fathoms, with such effect that the 
spurting column of water had in some instances 
drowned the zealous workmen who had been the 
first to reach it. And, while such were the resources 
of less favored localities or seasons, profuse rains 
descended over the whole region for one half of the 
year, and the thick summer dews compensated by 
night for the daily tribute extorted by an African 
sun. 

2. At various distances over the undulating sur- 
face, and through the woods, were seen the villas 
and the hamlets of that happy land. It was an age 
when the pride of architecture had been indulged 
to the full ; edifices, public and private, mansions 
and temples, ran off far away from each market- 
town or borough, as from a center, some of stone 
or marble, but most of them of that composite of 
fine earth, rammed tight by means of frames, for 
which the Saracens were afterwards famous, and 
of which specimens remain to this day, as hard in 
surface, as sharp at the angles, as when they first 
were finished. Every here and there, on hill or 
crag, crowned with basilicas and temples, radiant 
in the sun, might be seen the cities of the province 
or of its neighborhood, Thibursicumbur, Thugga, 
Laribus, Siguessa, Sufetula, and many others ; while 
in the far distance, on an elevated table-land under 
the Atlas, might be discerned the Colonia* Scilli- 
tana, famous about fifty years before the date of 



54 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

which we write for the martyrdom of Speratus* and 
his companions, who were beheaded at the order of 
the proconsul for refusing to swear by the genius 
of Rome and the emperor. 

3. If the spectator now takes his stand, not in 
Sicca itself, but about a quarter of a mile to the 
southeast, on the hill or knoll on which was placed 
the cottage of Agellius, the city itself will enter 
into the picture. Its name, Sicca Veneria, if it be 
derived from the Sochothbenoth,* or " tents of the 
daughters," mentioned by the inspired writer as 
an object of pagan worship in Samaria, shows that 
it owed its foundation to the Phoenician colonists of 
the country. At any rate the Punic* deities retained 
their hold upon the place ; the temples of the Tyrian 
Hercules* and of Saturn, the scene of annual hu- 
man sacrifices, were conspicuous in its outline, 
though these and all other religious buildings in it 
looked small beside the mysterious antique shrine 
devoted to the sensual rites of the Syrian Astarte. 
Public baths and a theater, a capitol, imitative of 
Rome, a gymnasium, the long outline of a portico, 
an equestrian statue in brass of the Emperor Sev- 
erus,* were grouped together above the streets of 
a city, which, narrow and winding, ran up and 
down across the hill. In its center an extraordinary 
spring threw up incessantly several tons of water 
every minute, and was inclosed by the superstitious 
gratitude of the inhabitants with the peristylium of 
a sacred place. At the extreme back, towards the 



SICCA VENERIA 55 

north, which could not be seen from the point of 
view where we last stationed ourselves, there was 
a sheer descent of rock, bestowing on the city, when 
it was seen at a distance on the Mediterranean side, 
the same bold and striking appearance which at- 
taches to Castro Giovanni, the ancient Enna, in 
the heart of Sicily. 

4. And now, withdrawing our eyes from the 
panorama, whether in its distant or' nearer objects, 
if we would at length contemplate the spot itself 
from which we have been last surveying it, we shall 
find almost as much to repay attention, and to elicit 
admiration. We stand in the midst of a farm of 
some wealthy proprietor, consisting of a number of 
fields and gardens, separated from each other by 
hedges of cactus or the aloe. At the foot of the 
hill, which sloped down on the side furthest from 
Sicca to one of the tributaries of the rich and turbid 
river of which we have spoken, a large yard or 
garden, intersected with a hundred artificial rills, 
was devoted to the cultivation of the beautiful and 
odoriferous khennah.* A thick grove of palms 
seemed to triumph in the refreshment of the water's 
side, and lifted up their thankful boughs towards 
heaven. The barley harvest in the fields which 
lay higher up the hill was over, or at least was 
finishing; and all that remained of the crop was 
the incessant and importunate chirping of the 
cicadae* and the rude booths of reeds and bul- 
rushes, now left to wither, in which the peasant 



56 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

boys found shelter from the sun, while in an earlier 
month they frightened from the grain the myriads 
of linnets, goldfinches, and other small birds who, 
as in other countries, contested with the human pro- 
prietor the possession of it. On the southwestern 
slope lies a neat and carefully dressed vineyard, the 
vine-stakes of which, dwarfish as they are, already 
cast long shadows on the eastern side. Slaves are 
scattered over it, testifying to the scorching power 
of the sun by their broad petasus* and to its op- 
pressive heat by the scanty subligarium* which 
reached from the belt or girdle to the knees. They 
are engaged in cutting off useless twigs to which the 
last showers of spring have given birth, and are 
twisting those which promise fruit into positions 
where they will be safe both from the breeze and 
from the sun. Everything gives token of that gra- 
cious and happy season which the great Latin poets 
have hymned in their beautiful but heathen strains ; 
when, after the heavy rains, and raw mists, and 
piercing winds, and fitful sun-gleams of a long six 
months, the mighty mother manifests herself anew, 
and pours out the resources of her innermost being 
for the life and enjoyment of every portion of the 
vast whole. (Callista, chap, i.) 

Questions and Studies 

What impression does the writer wish to convey 
by the description as a whole? In view of this im- 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 57 

pression, are the details well chosen ? ( Some analy- 
sis of the details will here be necessary.) What 
relation does the opening sentence bear to the rest 
of the description? Sketch on paper the relative 
positions of the principal objects or points of inter- 
est in the picture. The aim of description, as a lit- 
erary type, is to suggest clear mental pictures. Does 
this description enable you to form a clear mental 
picture of Sicca and its neighborhood? 

Unity. Apply the usual tests. Note the careful 
unity of the paragraphs. Coherence. Discuss the 
successive viewpoints, their principle of arrange- 
ment, the devices employed in passing from one 
to another, etc. Are the details always consistent 
with their respective viewpoints ? Emphasis. Why 
is the country about Sicca described first ? Why are 
farm and vineyard described last? Are these em- 
phatic arrangements? Test the beginning of the 
paragraphs for paragraph-emphasis. 

Make a written outline of the description, distin- 
guishing the various viewpoints and the more im- 
portant objects seen from each. 



VIII. THE LOCUST PLAGUE 

i. His [Juba's] finger was directed to a spot 
where, amid the thick foliage, the gleam of a pool 
or of a marsh was visible. The various waters 
round about issuing from the gravel, or drained 
from the nightly damps, had run into a hollow, 
filled with the decaying vegetation of former years, 
and were languidly filtered out into a brook, more 
healthy than the vast reservoir itself. Its banks 
were bordered with a deep, broad layer of mud, a 
transition substance between the rich vegetable 
matter which it once had been, and the multitudi- 
nous world of insect life which it was becoming. 
A cloud or mist at this time was hanging over it, 
high in air. A harsh and shrill sound, a whizzing 
or a chirping, proceeded from that cloud to the ear 
of the attentive listener. What these indications 
portended was plain. " There," said Juba, " is what 
will tell more against you than imperial edict, in- 
former, or proconsular apparitor; and no work of 
mine." 

2. He turned down the bank and disappeared. 
Agellius and his guest looked at each other in dis- 
may. " It is the locusts," they whispered to each 
other as they went back into the cottage. 



58 



THE LOCUST PLAGUE 59 

3. The plague of locusts, one of the most awful 
visitations to which the countries included in the 
Roman empire were exposed, extended from the 
Atlantic to Ethiopia, from Arabia to India, and 
from the Nile and Red Sea to Greece and the north 
of Asia Minor. Instances are recorded in history 
of clouds of the devastating insect crossing the 
Black Sea to Poland, and the Mediterranean to 
Lombardy. It is as numerous in its species as it 
is wide in its range of territory. Brood follows 
brood, with a sort of family likeness, yet with dis- 
tinct attributes, as we read in the prophets of the 
Old Testament, from whom Bochart* tells us it is 
possible to enumerate as many as ten kinds. It 
wakens into existence and activity as early as the 
month of March ; but instances are not wanting, 
as in our present history, of its appearance as late 
as June. Even one flight comprises myriads upon 
myriads passing imagination, to which the drops of 
rain or the sands of the sea are the only fit com- 
parison ; and hence it is almost a proverbial mode 
of expression in the East (as may be illustrated by 
the sacred pages to which we just now referred), 
by way of describing a vast invading army, to liken 
it to the locusts. So dense are they, when upon 
the wing, that it is no exaggeration to say they hide 
the sun, from which circumstance indeed their name 
in Arabic is derived. And so ubiquitous are they 
when they have alighted on the earth, that they 
simply cover or clothe its surface. 



60 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

4. This last characteristic is stated in the sacred 
account of the plagues* of Egypt, where their fac- 
ulty of devastation is also mentioned. The cor- 
rupting fly and the bruising and prostrating hail pre- 
ceded them in the series of visitations, but they 
came to do the work of ruin more thoroughly. For 
not only the crops and fruits, but the foliage of the 
forest itself, nay, the small twigs and the bark of 
the trees are the victims of their curious and ener- 
getic rapacity. They have been known even to gnaw 
the door-posts of the houses. Nor do they execute 
their task in so slovenly a way, that, as they have 
succeeded other plagues, so they may have succes- 
sors themselves. They take pains to spoil what they 
leave. Like the Harpies,* they smear everything 
that they touch with a miserable slime, which has 
the effect of a virus in corroding, or, as some say, 
in scorching and burning. And then, perhaps, as 
if all this were little, when they can do nothing else, 
they die ; as if out of sheer malevolence to man, 
for the poisonous elements of their nature are then 
let loose and dispersed abroad, and create a pesti- 
lence ; and they manage to destroy many more by 
their death than in their life. 

5. Such are the locusts, — whose existence the 
ancient heretics brought forward as their palmary 
proof that there was an evil creator, and of whom 
an Arabian writer shows his national horror, when 
he says that they have the head of a horse, the eyes 
of an elephant, the neck of a bull, the horns of a 



THE LOCUST PLAGUE 6l 

stag, the breast of a lion, the belly of a scorpion, 
the wings of an eagle, the legs of a camel, the feet 
of an ostrich, and the tail of a serpent. 

6. And now they are rushing upon a considerable 
tract of that beautiful region of which we have 
spoken with such admiration. The swarm to which 
Juba pointed grew and grew till it became a com- 
pact body, as much as a furlong square ; yet it was 
but the vanguard of a series of similar hosts, formed 
one after another out of the hot mold or sand, rising 
into the air like clouds, enlarging into a dusky can- 
opy, and then discharged against the fruitful plain. 
At length the huge innumerous mass was put into 
motion, and began its career, darkening the face 
of day. As became an instrument of divine power, 
it seemed to have no volition of its own ; it was set 
off, it drifted, with the wind, and thus made north- 
wards, straight for Sicca. Thus they advanced, 
host after host, for a time wafted on the air, and 
gradually declining to the earth, while fresh broods 
were carried over the first, and neared the earth, 
after a longer flight, in their turn. For twelve miles 
did they extend from front to rear, and their whiz- 
zing and hissing could be heard for six miles on 
every side of them. The bright sun, though hidden 
by them, illumined their bodies, and was reflected 
from their quivering wings ; and as they heavily 
fell earthward, they seemed like the innumerable 
flakes of a yellow-colored snow. And like snow 
did they descend, a living carpet, or rather pall, 



62 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

upon fields, crops, gardens, copses, groves, or- 
chards, vineyards, olive woods, orangeries, palm 
plantations, and the deep forests, sparing nothing 
within their reach, and where there was nothing to 
devour, lying helpless in drifts, or crawling forward 
obstinately, as they best might, with the hope of 
prey. They could spare their hundred thousand 
soldiers twice or thrice over, and not miss them ; 
their masses filled the bottoms of the ravines and 
hollow ways, impeding the traveler as he rode for- 
ward on his journey, and trampled by thousands 
under his horse-hoofs. In vain was all this over- 
throw and waste by the roadside ; in vain their loss 
in river, pool, and watercourse. The poor peasants 
hastily dug pits and trenches as their enemy came 
on ; in vain they filled them from the wells or with 
lighted stubble. Heavily and thickly did the locusts 
fall ; they were lavish of their lives ; they choked 
the flame and the water, which. destroyed them the 
while, and the vast living hostile armament still 
moved on. 

7. They moved right on like soldiers in their 
ranks, stopping at nothing, and straggling for noth- 
ing; they carried a broad furrow or wheal all 
across the country, black and loathsome, while it 
was as green and smiling on each side of them and 
in front, as it had been before they came. Before 
them, in the language of prophets, was a paradise, 
and behind them a desert. They are daunted by 
nothing; they surmount walls and hedges, and en- 



THE LOCUST PLAGUE 63 

ter inclosed gardens or inhabited houses. A rare 
and experimental vineyard has been planted in a 
sheltered grove. The high winds of Africa will 
not commonly allow the light trellis or the slim 
pole ; but here the lofty poplar of Campania* has 
been possible, on which the vine plant mounts so 
many yards into the air that the poor grape-gath- 
erers bargain for a funeral pile and a tomb as one 
of the conditions of their engagement. The locusts 
have done what the winds and lightning could not 
do, and the whole promise of the vintage, leaves 
and all, is gone, and the slender stems are left bare. 
There is another yard, less uncommon, but still 
tended with more than common care ; each plant 
is kept within due bounds by a circular trench round 
it, and by upright canes on which it is to trail ; in 
an hour the solicitude and long toil of the vine- 
dresser are lost, and his pride humbled. There is 
a smiling farm; another sort of vine, of remark- 
able character, is found against the farmhouse. 
This vine springs from one root, and has clothed 
and matted with its many branches the four walls. 
The whole of it is covered thick with long clusters, 
which another month will ripen. On every grape 
and leaf there is a locust. Into the dry caves and 
pits, carefully strewed with straw, the harvest-men 
have (safely, as they thought just now) been lodg- 
ing the far-famed African wheat. One grain or 
root shoots up into ten, twenty, fifty, eighty, nay, 
three or four hundred stalks ; sometimes the stalks 



64 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

have two .ears apiece, and these shoot off into a num- 
ber of lesser ones. These stores are intended for 
the Roman populace, but the locusts have been be- 
forehand with them. The small patches of ground 
belonging to the poor peasants up and down the 
country, for raising the turnips, garlic, barley, 
watermelons, on which they live, are the prey of 
these glutton invaders as much as the choicest vines 
and olives. Nor have they any reverence for the 
villa of the civic decurion* or the Roman official. 
The neatly arranged kitchen garden, with its 
cherries, plums, peaches, and apricots, is a waste ; 
as the slaves sit round, in the kitchen in the first 
court, at their coarse evening meal, the room is 
filled with the invading force, and news comes to 
them that the enemy has fallen upon the apples and 
pears in the basement, and is at the same time plun- 
dering and sacking the preserves of quince and 
pomegranate, and reveling in the jars of precious 
oil of Cyprus and Mendes* in the store-rooms. 

8. They come up to the walls of Sicca, and are 
flung against them into the ditch. Not a moment's 
hesitation or delay ; they recover their footing, they 
climb up the wood or stucco, they surmount the 
parapet, or they have entered in at the windows, fill- 
ing the apartments, and the most private and lux- 
urious chambers, not one or two, like stragglers at 
forage or rioters after a victory, but in order of 
battle, and with the array of an army. Choice plants 
or flowers about the impluvia* and xysti,* for or- 



THE LOCUST PLAGUE 65 

nament or refreshment, myrtles, oranges, pome- 
granates, the rose and the carnation, have disap- 
peared. They dim the bright marbles of the walls 
and the gilding of the ceilings. They enter the tri- 
clinium in the midst of the banquet; they crawl 
over the viands and spoil what they do not devour. 
Unrelaxed by success and by enjoyment, onward 
they go ; a secret mysterious instinct keeps them 
together, as if they had a king over them. They 
move along the floor in so strange an order that 
they seem to be a tessellated pavement themselves, 
and to be the artificial embellishment of the place; 
so true are their lines, and so perfect is the pattern 
they describe. Onward they go, to the market, to 
the temple sacrifices, to the bakers' stores, to the 
cookshops, to the confectioners, to the druggists ; 
nothing comes amiss to them ; wherever man has 
aught to eat or drink, there are they, reckless of 
death, strong of appetite, certain of conquest. 

9. They have passed on ; the men of Sicca sadly 
congratulate themselves, and begin to look about 
them, and to sum up their losses. Being the pro- 
prietors of the neighboring districts, and the pur- 
chasers of its produce, they lament over the devasta- 
tion, not because the fair country is disfigured, but 
because income is becoming scanty, and prices are 
becoming high. How is a population of many thou- 
sands to be fed? where is the grain, where the 
melons, the figs, the dates, the gourds, the beans, 
the grapes, to sustain and solace the multitudes in 



66 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

their lanes, caverns, and garrets? This is another 
weighty consideration for the class well-to-do in 
the world. The taxes too, and contributions, the 
capitation tax, the percentage upon corn, the vari- 
ous articles of revenues due to Rome, how are they 
to be paid? How are cattle to be provided for the 
sacrifices and the tables of the wealthy? One-half, 
at least, of the supply of Sicca is cut off. No longer 
slaves are seen coming into the city from the country 
in troops with their baskets on their shoulders, or 
beating forward the horse, or mule, or ox, overladen 
with its burden, or driving in the dangerous cow or 
the unresisting sheep. The animation of the place 
is gone ; a gloom hangs over the Forum ; and if 
its frequenters are still merry, there is something of 
sullenness and recklessness in their mirth. The 
gods have given the city up ; something or other 
has angered them. Locusts, indeed, are no uncom- 
mon visitation, but at an earlier season. Perhaps 
some temple has been polluted, or some unholy rite 
practiced, or some secret conspiracy has spread. 

10. Another and a still worse calamity. The in- 
vaders, as we have already hinted, could be more 
terrible still in their overthrow than in their ravages. 
The inhabitants of the country had attempted, where 
they could, to destroy them by fire and water. It 
would seem as if the malignant animals had resolved 
that the sufferers should have the benefit of this 
policy to the full ; for they had not got more than 
twenty miles beyond Sicca when they suddenly 



THE LOCUST PLAGUE 6j 

sickened and died. When they thus had done all 
the mischief they could by their living, when they 
thus had made their foul maws the grave of every 
living thing, next they died themselves, and made 
the desolated land their own grave. They took 
from it its hundred forms and varieties of beautiful 
life, and left it their own fetid and poisonous car- 
casses in payment. It was a sudden catastrophe; 
they seemed making for the Mediterranean, as if, 
like other great conquerors, they had other worlds 
to subdue beyond it ; but, whether they were over- 
gorged or struck by some atmospheric change, or 
that their time was come and they paid the debt 
of nature, so it was that suddenly they fell, and 
their glory came to nought, and all was vanity 
to them as to others, and " their* stench rose up, 
and their corruption rose up, because they had done 
proudly." 

ii. The hideous swarms lay dead in the moist 
steaming underwoods, in the green swamps, in the 
sheltered valleys, in the ditches and furrows of the 
fields, amid the monuments of their own prowess, 
the ruined crops and the dishonored vineyards. A 
poisonous element, issuing from their remains, 
mingled with the atmosphere, and corrupted it. The 
dismayed peasant found that a plague had begun; 
a new visitation, not confined to the territory which 
the enemy had made its own, but extending far and 
wide, as the atmosphere extends, in all directions. 
Their daily toil, no longer claimed by the fruits of 



68 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

the earth, which have ceased to exist, is now devoted 
to the object of ridding themselves of the deadly 
legacy which they have received in their stead. In 
vain ; it is their last toil ; they are digging pits, 
they are raising piles, for their own corpses, as well 
as for the bodies of their enemies. Invader and vic- 
tim lie in the same grave, burn in the same heap ; 
they sicken while they work, and the pestilence 
spreads. A new invasion is menacing Sicca, in the 
shape of companies of peasants and slaves, with 
their employers and overseers, nay, the farmers 
themselves and proprietors, the panic having broken 
the bonds of discipline, rushing thither from fam- 
ine and infection as to a place of safety. The in- 
habitants of the city are as frightened as they, and 
more energetic. They determine to keep them at 
a distance ; the gates are closed ; a strict cordon is 
drawn ; however, by the continued pressure, num- 
bers contrive to make an entrance, as water into a 
vessel, or light through the closed shutters, and any- 
how the air cannot be put in quarantine ; so the pes- 
tilence has the better of it, and at last appears in the 
alleys and in the cellars of Sicca. {Callista, chaps, 
xiv, xv.) 

Questions and Studies 

Discuss the description of the marsh in § I. May 
we call it " description by suggestion " ? What kind 
of picture, vivid or otherwise, is left on the imagi- 
nation? To which of the two types, description 



QUESTIONS AND. STUDIES 69 

or exposition, do you refer §§ 3, 4, and 5 ? On what 
grounds ? 

What is the viewpoint in § 6? Does the view- 
point shift? Note the topical development of § 7 
(Topical Sentence, Repetition, Particulars). Note, 
too, the pictorial value of the successive particulars. 
Analyze § 8 for topical development. What gives 
unity to this paragraph? Coherence? emphasis? 
What is the particular force of the final sentence? 
Do we get a clear mental picture of the beginning, 
progress, and end of the locust plague ? What sen- 
tences enable us to determine the direction and ex- 
tent of the plague with reference to Sicca? What 
impression does the description, taken as a unit, 
seek to convey ? Study the selection of details with 
reference to this impression. 

The structure of the description as a whole de- 
serves careful study. Test it (§§ 6-1 1) for unity, 
coherence, emphasis. 

Are we right in calling the passage description? 
Why not call it narration? (It is sometimes diffi- 
cult in the case of certain subjects, e.g., a battle, a 
conflagration, a storm, a sunset, to determine 
whether the account of them is to be called descrip- 
tion or narration. In general such subjects can be 
treated from either a descriptive or a narrative 
standpoint, according as stress is laid either on the 
element of scene or on that of action.) Portrayal 
conditioned by an element of time is apt to be live- 
lier in movement than the portrayal of still life, 



JO PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

of mere inert objects. Why is this so, and is the 
principle verified in the present instance? Note the 
effect, as contributing to the graphic, picturesque 
style, of epithet ; metaphor ; simile ; personification ; 
the " historical present." Express what you con- 
ceive to be the ideal of a good descriptive style. Is 
the ideal realized in the present case? 



IX. JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER 

The house of Jucundus* was closed for the night 
when Juba reached it, or you would see, were you 
his companion, that it was one of the most showy 
shops in Sicca. It was the image-store of the place, 
and set out for. sale, not articles of statuary alone, 
but of metal, of mosaic work, and of jewelry, as far 
as they were dedicated to the service of paganism. 
It was bright with the many colors adopted in the 
embellishment of images, and the many lights which 
silver and gold, brass and ivory, alabaster, gypsum, 
talc, and glass reflected. Shelves and cabinets were 
laden with wares ; both the precious material and 
the elaborated trinket. All tastes were suited, the 
popular and the refined, the fashion of the day and 
the love of the antique, the classical and the barba- 
rian devotion. There you might see the rude sym- 
bols of invisible powers, which, originating in de- 
ficiency of art, had been perpetuated by reverence 
for the past ; the mysterious cube of marble sacred 
among the Arabs,* the pillar which was the emblem 
of Mercury* or Bacchus,* the broad-based cone of 
Heliogabalus,* the pyramid of Paphos,* and the 
tile or brick of Juno.* There too were the unmean- 
ing blocks of stone with human heads, which were 

71 



J2 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

to be dressed out in rich robes, and to simulate the 
human form. There were other articles besides, 
as portable as these were unmanageable ; little 
Junos, Mercuries, Dianas,* and Fortunes,* for 
the bosom or the girdle. Household gods were 
there, and the objects of personal devotion, Mi- 
nerva* or Vesta,* with handsome niches or shrines 
in which they might reside. There too were the 
brass crowns, or nimbi* which were intended to 
protect the heads of the gods from bats and birds. 
There you might buy, were you a heathen, rings 
with heads on them of Jupiter,* Mars,* the Sun,* 
Serapis,* and above all Astarte. You would find 
there the rings and signets of the Basilidians ;* am- 
ulets too of wood or ivory ; figures of demons, pre- 
ternaturally ugly ; little skeletons, and other super- 
stitious devices. It would be hard, indeed, if you 
could not be pleased, whatever your religious de- 
nomination, unless indeed you were determined to 
reject all the appliances and objects of idolatry in- 
discriminately; and in that case you would rejoice 
that it was night, when you arrived there, and, in 
particular, that darkness swallowed up other appli- 
ances and objects of pagan worship, which to dark- 
ness were due by a peculiar title, and by darkness 
were best shrouded, till the coming of that day, 
when all things, good and evil, shall be made light. 
The shop, as we have said, was closed ; concealed 
from view by large lumbering shutters, and made 
secure by heavy bars of wood. So we must enter 



JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER 73 

by the passage or vestibule on the right side, and 
that will conduct us into a modest atrium* with an 
imp! avium on one side, and on the other the tri- 
clinium* or supper- room, backing the shop. Jucun- 
dus had been pleasantly engaged in a small supper- 
party; and, mindful that a symposium* should lie 
within the number of the Graces and of the Muses, 
he had confined his guests to two, the young Greek 
Aristo, who was one of his principal artists, and 
Cornelius, the son of a freedman of a Roman of 
distinction, who had lately got a place in one of 
the scrinia* of the proconsular officium* and had 
migrated into the province from the imperial city, 
where he had spent his best days. 

The dinner had not been altogether suitable to 
modern ideas of good living. The grapes from 
Tacape,* and the dates from the lake Tritonis,* the 
white and black figs, the nectarines and peaches, and 
the watermelons, address themselves to the imagina- 
tion of an Englishman, as well as of an African of 
the third century. So also might the liquor derived 
from the sap or honey of the Getulian palm, and the 
sweet wine, called melilotus* made from the poeti- 
cal fruit found upon the coasts of the Syrtis.* He 
would have been struck too with the sweetness of 
the mutton ; but he would have asked what the 
sheep's tails were before he tasted them, and found 
how like marrow the firm substance ate, of which 
they consisted. He would have felt he ought to ad- 
mire the roes of mullets, pressed and dried, from 



74 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

Mauretania; but he would have thought twice be- 
fore he tried the lion cutlets, though they had the 
flavor of veal, and the additional gout* of being im- 
perial property, and poached from a preserve. But, 
when he saw the indigenous dish, the very haggis* 
and cock-a-leekie* of Africa, in the shape of — 
(alas! alas! it must be said, with whatever apology 
for its introduction) — in shape, then, of a delicate 
puppy, served up with tomatoes, with its head be- 
tween its forepaws, we consider he would have risen 
from the unholy table, and thought he had fallen 
upon the hospitality of some sorceress of the neigh- 
boring forest. However, to that festive board our 
Briton was not invited, for he had some previous 
engagement that evening, either of painting himself 
with woad, or of hiding himself to the chin in the 
fens ; so that nothing occurred to disturb the har- 
mony of the party, and the good humor and easy 
conversation which was the effect of such excellent 
cheer. 

Cornelius had been present at the Secular* Games 
in the foregoing year, and was full of them, of 
Rome, and of himself in connection with it, as be- 
came so genuine a cockney of the imperial period. 
He was full of the high patriotic thoughts which 
so solemn a celebration had kindled within him. " O 
great Rome ! " he said, " thou art first, and there is 
no second. In that wonderful pageant which these 
eyes saw last year was embodied her majesty, was 
promised her eternity. We die, she lives. I say, 



JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER 75 

let a man die. It 's well for him to take hemlock, 
or open a vein, after having seen the Secular Games. 
What was there to live for? I felt it; life was 
gone ; its best gifts flat and insipid after that great 
day. Excellent — Tauromenian,* I suppose ? We 
know it in Rome. Fill up my cup. I drink to the 
genius* of the emperor." 

He was full of his subject, and soon resumed it. 
" Fancy the Campus Martius lighted up from one 
end to the other. It was the finest thing in the 
world. A large plain, covered, not with streets, not 
with woods, but broken and crossed with superb 
buildings in the midst of groves, avenues of trees, 
and green grass down to the water's edge. There 's 
nothing that isn't there. Do you want the grandest 
temples in the world, the most spacious porticoes, 
the longest race-courses? there they are. Do you 
want gymnasia? there they are. Do you want 
arches, statues, obelisks? you find them there. 
There you have at one end the stupendous mauso- 
leum* of Augustus, cased with white marble, and 
just across the river the huge towering mound* of 
Hadrian. At the other end you have the noble Pan- 
theon* of Agrippa, with its splendid Syracusan col- 
umns, and its dome glittering with silver tiles. Hard 
by are the baths* of Alexander, with their beauti- 
ful groves. All, my good friend ! I shall have no 
time to drink, if I go on. Beyond are the numerous 
chapels and fanes which fringe the base of the Capi- 
toline* hill ; the tall column* of Antoninus comes 



j6 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

next, with its adjacent basilica, where is kept the 
authentic list of the provinces of the empire, and of 
the governors, each a king in power and dominion, 
who are sent out to them. Well, I am now only 
beginning. Fancy, I say, this magnificent region 
all lighted up ; every temple to and fro, every bath, 
every grove, gleaming with innumerable lamps and 
torches. No, not even the gods of Olympus* have 
any thing that comes near it. Rome is the greatest 
of all divinities. In the dead of night all was alive ; 
then it was, when nature sleeps exhausted, Rome 
began the solemn sacrifices to commemorate her 
thousand years. On the banks of the Tiber, which 
had seen ^Eneas* land, and Romulus ascend to the 
gods, the clear red flame shot up as the victims 
burned. The music of ten thousand horns and flutes 
burst forth, and the sacred dances began upon the 
greensward. I am too old to dance ; but, I protest, 
even I stood up and threw off. We danced through 
three nights, dancing the old millenary* out, danc- 
ing the new millenary in. We were all Romans, no 
strangers, no slaves. It was a solemn family feast, 
the feast of all the Romans." 

" Then we came in for the feast," said Aristo ; 
" for Caracalla* gave Roman citizenship to all free- 
men all over the world. We are all of us Romans, 
recollect, Cornelius." 

" Ah ! that was another matter, a condescension," 
answered Cornelius. " Yes, in a certain sense, I 
grant it; but it was a political act." 



JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER TJ 

" I warrant you," retorted Aristo, " most politi- 
cal. We were to be fleeced, do you see? so your 
imperial government made us Romans, that we 
might have the taxes of Romans, and that in addi- 
tion to our own. You 've taxed us double ; and as 
for the privilege of citizenship, much it is, by Her- 
cules, when every snob has it who can wear a 
pileus* or cherish his hair." 

" Ah ! but you should have seen the procession 
from the Capitol," continued Cornelius, " on, I 
think, the second day ; from the Capitol* to the 
Circus,* all down the Via* Sacra. Hosts of 
strangers there, and provincials from the four 
corners of the earth, but not in the procession. 
There you saw all in one conp-d'cril* the real good 
blood of Rome, the young blood of the new gener- 
ation, and promise of the future ; the sons of pa- 
trician and consular families, of imperators,* ora- 
tors, conquerors, statesmen. They rode at the head 
of the procession, fine young fellows, six abreast ; 
and still more of them on foot. Then came the 
running horses and the chariots, the boxers, wrest- 
lers, and other combatants, all ready for the compe- 
tition. The whole school of gladiators then turned 
out, boys and all, with their masters, dressed in red 
tunics, and splendidly armed. They formed three 
bands, and they went forward gayly, dancing and 
singing the Pyrrhic* By-the-bye, a thousand pair 
of gladiators fought during the games, a round 
thousand, and such clean-made, well-built fellows, 



78 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

and they came against each other so gallantly ! You 
should have seen it; / can't go through it. There 
was a lot of satyrs,* jumping and frisking, in bur- 
lesque of the martial dances which preceded them. 
There was a crowd of trumpeters and horn-blowers ; 
ministers of the sacrifices with their victims, bulls 
and rams, dressed up with gay wreaths ; drivers, 
butchers, haruspices,* heralds ; images of gods 
with their cars of ivory or of silver, drawn by tame 
lions and elephants. I can't recollect the order. O ! 
but the grandest thing of all was the Carmen,* sung 
by twenty-seven noble youths, and as many noble 
maidens, taken for the purpose from the bosoms of 
their families to propitiate the gods of Rome. The 
flamens,* augurs,* colleges of priests, it was end- 
less. Last of all came the emperor himself." 

" But I tell you, man," rejoined Cornelius, " Rome 
is a city of kings. That one city, in this one year, 
has as many kings at once as those of all the kings 
of all the dynasties of Egypt put together. Sesos- 
tris,* and the rest of them, what are they to im- 
perators, prefects,* proconsuls,* vicarii* and ra- 
tionales?* Look back at Lucullus,* Caesar,* Pom- 
pey,* Sylla,* Titus,* Trajan.* What 's old Cheops's* 
pyramid to the Flavian* amphitheatre? What is 
the many-gated Thebes* to Nero's* golden house, 
while it was? What the grandest palace of Sesos- 
tris or Ptolemy* but a second-rate villa of one of ten 
thousand Roman citizens? Our houses stand on 



JUCUNDUS AT SUPPER 79 

acres of ground ; they ascend as high as the tower 
of Babylon* ; they swarm with columns like a forest ; 
they pullulate into statues and pictures. The walls, 
pavements, and ceilings are dazzling from the luster 
of the rarest marble, red and yellow, green and 
mottled. Fountains of perfumed water shoot aloft 
from the floor, and fish swim in rocky channels 
round about the room, waiting to be caught and 
killed for the banquet. We dine; and we feast on 
the head of the ostrich, the brains of the peacock, 
the liver of the bream, the milk of the murena,* and 
the tongue of the flamingo. A swarm of doves, 
nightingales, beccaficos* are concentrated into one 
dish. On great occasions we eat a phoenix.* Our 
saucepans are of silver, our dishes of gold, our 
vases of onyx, and our cups of precious stones. 
Hangings and carpets of Tyrian* purple are around 
us and beneath us, and we lie on ivory couches. The 
choicest wines of Greece and Italy crown our gob- 
lets, and exotic flowers crown our heads. In come 
troops of dancers from Lydia,* or pantomimes from 
Alexandria,* to entertain both eye and mind; or 
our noble dames and maidens take a place at our 
tables ; they wash in asses' milk, they dress by 
mirrors as large as fish-ponds, and they glitter from 
head to foot with combs, brooches, necklaces, col- 
lars, ear-rings, armlets, bracelets, finger-rings, 
girdles, stomachers, and anklets, all of diamond and 
emerald. Our slaves may be counted by thousands, 
and they come from all parts of the world. Every- 



8o PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

thing rare and precious is brought to Rome ; the 
gum* of Arabia, the nard* of Assyria, the papyrus* 
of Egypt, the citron-wood* of Mauretania, the 
bronze* of ^gina, the pearls* of Britain, the cloth* 
of gold of Phrygia, the fine webs* of Cos, the em- 
broidery* of Babylon, the silks* of Persia, the lion- 
skins* of Getulia, the wool* of Miletus, the plaids* 
of Gaul. Thus we live, an imperial people, who do 
nothing but enjoy themselves, and keep festival the 
whole year ; and at length we die, — and then we 
burn ; we burn, — in stacks of cinnamon and 
cassia,* and in shrouds of asbestos* making em- 
phatically a good end of it. Such are we Romans, 
a great people. Why, we are honored wherever we 
go. There 's my master, there 's myself ; as we 
came here from Italy, I protest we were nearly 
worshiped as demigods." 

" And perhaps some fine morning," said Aristo, 
" Rome herself will burn in cinnamon and cassia, 
and in all her burnished Corinthian* brass and scar- 
let bravery, the old mother following her children 
to the funeral pyre. One has heard something of 
Babylon, and its drained moat, and the soldiers of 
the Persian." 

A pause occurred in the conversation, as one of 
Jucundus's slaves entered with fresh wine, larger 
goblets, and a vase of snow from the Atlas. (Cal- 
lista, chap, v.) 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 8l 



Questions and Studies 

Chapter v of Callista is a succession of descrip- 
tive passages in Newman's best manner. The pen- 
pictures of the image shop, the Africo-Roman 
supper, the Campus Martius, the procession from 
the Capitol during the Secular Games at Rome, 
and, finally, of Rome itself, with its wealth of 
luxuries of every kind, are all splendid examples 
of the use of the concrete in description. In each 
instance the description owes its power to a series 
of definite, specific details, each supplying its 
distinct image and all conspiring with cumula- 
tive effect to leave a vivid impression on the 
imagination. 

What sentence in § I characterizes the image shop 
as a whole? Discuss the general impression aimed 
at and the choice of details. What is the relation 
of the sentence, "All tastes were suited, etc.," to 
the succeeding sentences? Note the repetition of 
the word " there." What effect has this repetition 
on the coherence of the passage? Explain. 

Mark the initial sentence of § 3 and the depend- 
ence on it of the rest of the paragraph. What is 
the first suggested point of view ? Is it further par- 
ticularized and how? What value do you see in 
the author's device of an imaginary Englishman? 
What does the passage gain by the introduction in 
the last sentence of " our Briton " ? Does any con- 



82 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

fusion of viewpoint result ? Discuss the value of 
the details for the author's purpose. 

What sentence embodies the theme of the descrip- 
tion in § 5 ? Point out a fundamental image. Ob- 
serve the grouping of details with reference to this 
image, viz., first generalized, then particularised 
details. Is there a plan in the particularised details? 
Is the latter part of the paragraph description or 
narration ? 

Why is § 6 to be considered descriptive in type? 
Is a point of view suggested ? Do the details follow 
any principle of order? What dominant impres- 
sion does the writer aim at making? With what 
success? The use of concrete detail, characteristic 
of the passages now under study, calls for attention. 

Again (§9) a general impression is aimed at. 
What is it? The rich profusion of concrete detail 
has its purpose. What is it? What suggestiveness 
or connotative force belongs to the numerous proper 
names? Have the names, e.g., Lucullus, Caesar, 
Pompey, etc., any suggestive force for those who 
have never read of these celebrities? What, then, 
do you understand by suggestiveness as an attribute 
of words ? Group the details under heads, showing 
a plan in the description. Characterize the style of 
the passage. Is it a typical style for effective de- 
scription? If so, why? Note the little concrete 
touch in § 11. What significance do you see in it? 



X. THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND 

It is an old story and a familiar, and I need not 
go through it. I need not tell you how suddenly 
the word of truth came to our ancestors in this 
island and subdued them to its gentle rule ; how the 
grace of God fell on them, and, without compulsion, 
as the historian tells us, the multitude became Chris- 
tian ; how, when all was tempestuous, and hopeless, 
and dark, Christ like a vision of glory came walking 
to them on the waves of the sea. Then suddenly 
there was a great calm; a change came over the 
pagan people in that quarter of the country where 
the gospel was first preached to them ; and from 
thence the blessed influence went forth ; it was 
poured out over the whole land, till, one and all, 
the Anglo-Saxon people were converted by it. In 
a hundred years the work was done ; the idols, the 
sacrifices, the mummeries of paganism flitted away 
and were not, and the pure doctrine and heavenly 
worship of the Cross were found in their stead. The 
fair form of Christianity rose up and grew and ex- 
panded like a beautiful pageant from north to south ; 
it was majestic, it was solemn, it was bright, it was 
beautiful and pleasant, it was soothing to the griefs, 
it was indulgent to the hopes of man; it was at 
83 



84 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

once a teaching and a worship ; it had a dogma, a 
mystery, a ritual of its own ; it had an hierarchical 
form. A brotherhood of holy pastors, with miter 
and crosier and uplifted hand, walked forth and 
blessed and ruled a joyful people. The crucifix 
headed the procession, and simple monks were there 
with hearts in prayer, and sweet chants resounded, 
and the holy Latin tongue was heard, and boys came 
forth in white, swinging censers, and the fragrant 
cloud arose, and mass was sung, and the saints were 
invoked; and day after day, and in the still night, 
and over the woody hills and in the quiet plains, as 
constantly as sun and moon and stars go forth in 
heaven, so regular and solemn was the stately march 
or blessed services on earth, high festival and gor- 
geous procession, and soothing dirge, and passing 
bell, and the familiar evening call to prayer : till he 
who recollected the old pagan time would think it 
all unreal that he beheld and heard, and would con- 
clude he did but see a vision, so marvelously was 
heaven let down upon earth, so triumphantly were 
chased away the fiends of darkness to their prison 
below. (Christ upon the Waters in Sermons 
Preached on Various Occasions, p. 120.) 

Questions and Studies 

Selections X, XI, and XII are examples of a 
type of description in which Newman was an adept, 
viz., the portrayal, in an intense emotional and im- 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 85 

aginative glow, of some inspiring scene or incident. 
(See in Selections VIII and IX illustrations of the 
same type. Word-painting is the name it com- 
monly goes by. The Latin rhetorical term for it is 
visio, the French, tableau. Oratory at its higher 
levels uses the device to impress and thrill the 
hearer.) 

The passage tells something that happened, viz., 
the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Why not, 
then, call it narration? Does the passage aim at 
some definite, clear-cut impression? If so, what is 
it? Do the details really contribute to heighten 
this impression? Do they possess any particular 
suggestive value? Specify. Do you catch any 
beat or cadence in the sentences? What does the 
prose-rhythm add to the suggestive elements of 
the description? Explain. Note the frequent 
" ands " in the sentence, " The crucifix headed the 
procession, etc." What is their rhetorical effect? 
What elements in the diction make for the vivid 
style ? 



XI. THE FIRST SYNOD OF WEST- 
MINSTER 

My Fathers, there was one* of your own order 
then in the maturity of his powers and his reputa- 
tion. His name is the property of this diocese ; yet 
is too great, too venerable, too dear to all Catholics, 
to be confined to any part of England, when it is 
rather a household word in the mouths of all of 
us. What would have been the feelings of that 
venerable man, the champion of God's ark in an 
evil time, could he have lived to see this day? It 
is almost presumptuous, for one who knew him not, 
to draw pictures about him, and his thoughts, and 
his friends, some of whom are even here present; 
yet am I wrong in fancying that a day such as this 
in which we stand would have seemed to him a 
dream, or, if he prophesied of it, to his hearers 
nothing but a mockery? Say that one time, rapt 
in spirit, he had reached forward to the future, and 
that his mortal eye had wandered from that lowly* 
chapel in the valley, which had been for centuries 
in the possession of Catholics, to the neighboring 
height, then waste and solitary. And let him say 
to those about him : " I see a bleak mount, looking 
upon an open country, over against that* huge 

86 



THE FIRST SYNOD OF WESTMINSTER 87 

town, to whose inhabitants Catholicism is of so little 
account. I see the ground marked out, and an 
ample inclosure made; and plantations are rising 
there, clothing and circling in the space. And there 
on that high spot, far from the haunts of men, yet 
in the very center of the island, a large* edifice, or 
rather pile of edifices, appears, with many fronts 
and courts, and long cloisters and corridors, and 
story upon story. And there it rises, under the in- 
vocation of the same sweet and powerful name 
which has been our strength and consolation in the 
Valley. I look more attentively at that building, 
and I see it is fashioned upon that ancient* style 
of art which brings back the past, which had seemed 
to be perishing from off the face of the earth, or 
to be preserved only as a curiosity, or to be imitated 
only as a fancy. I listen, and I hear the sound of 
voices, grave and musical, renewing the old chant, 
with which Augustine* greeted Ethelbert* in the 
free air upon the Kentish strand. It comes from a 
long procession, and it winds along the cloisters. 
Priests and religious, theologians from the schools, 
and canons from the Cathedral, walk in due prece- 
dence. And then there comes a vision of well-nigh 
twelve mitered heads ; and last I see a Prince* of 
the Church, in the royal dye of empire and of mar- 
tyrdom, a pledge to us from Rome of Rome's un- 
wearied love, a token that that goodly company is 
firm in Apostolic faith and hope. And the shadow 
of the Saints is there ; — St. Benedict* is there, 



OO PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

speaking to us by the voice of bishop and of priest, 
and counting over the long ages through which he 
has prayed, and studied, and labored ; there, too, 
is St. Dominic's* white wool, which no blemish can 
impair, no stain can dim ; — and if St. Bernard* be 
not there, it is only that his absence may make 
him be remembered more. And the princely pa- 
triarch, St. Ignatius,* too, the St. George* of the 
modern world, with his chivalrous lance run through 
his writhing foe, he, too, sheds his blessing upon 
that train. And others, also, his equals or his jun- 
iors in history, whose pictures are above our altars, 
or soon shall be, the surest proof that the Lord's 
arm has not waxen short, nor his mercy failed, — 
they, too, are looking down from their thrones on 
high upon the throng. And so that high company 
moves on into the holy place ; and there, with 
august rite and awful sacrifice, inaugurates the 
great act which brings it thither." What is that 
act ? It is the first Synod of a new Hierarchy ; it 
is the resurrection of the Church. (The Second 
Spring in Sermons Preached on Various Occasions, 
p. 163.) 

Questions and Studies 

Newman's sermon, The Second Spring, was 
preached on the occasion of the First Provincial 
Synod of Westminster at St. Mary's College, Os- 
cott, 1 85 1. The Synod marked the first assembling 
of the Catholic Hierarchy of England after its res- 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 89 

toration by Pius IX. Bishop Milner, to whom is 
attributed the prophetic dream, was Vicar-Apostolic 
of the London District in the first quarter of the 
nineteenth century. 

Discuss the viewpoint ; its bearings on the unity 
and graphic vigor of the description. Note all the 
elements that make for dramatic vividness, e.g., 
use of first person, historical present, parallel struc- 
ture, etc. " Newman understood perfectly the sym- 
bolic value of rhythm and the possibility of impos- 
ing upon a series of simple words, by delicately sen- 
sitive adjustment, a power over the feelings and 
the imagination like that of an incantation." (Gates : 
Selections from N civilian, p. xxxv.) Apply this 
criticism to the passage under study. What " sym- 
bolic value " do you see in the rhythm ? To realize 
the " delicately sensitive adjustriient " of the words, 
rearrange them here and there and note the effect 
upon the rhythm. 

Compare this passage with a similar one in 
Burke's Speech on Conciliation zuith the Colonies, 
§ 23 : " Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself, 
etc." Which passage is better adapted to attain its 
purpose ? 



XII. CALLISTA'S DREAM 

i. She slept sound ; she dreamed. She thought 
she was no longer in Africa, but in her own Greece, 
more sunny and bright than before ; but the inhab- 
itants were gone. Its majestic mountains, its rich 
plains, its expanse of waters, all silent : no one to 
converse with, no one to sympathize with. And, 
as she wandered on and wondered, suddenly its face 
changed, and its colors were illuminated tenfold by 
a heavenly glory, and each hue upon the scene was 
of a beauty she had never known, and seemed 
strangely to affect all her senses at once, being fra- 
grance and music, as well as light. And there came 
out of the grottoes, and glens, and woods, and out 
of the seas, myriads of bright images, whose forms 
she could not discern ; and these came all around 
her, and became a sort of scene or landscape, which 
she could not have described in words, as if it were 
a world of spirits, not of matter. And as she gazed, 
she thought she saw before her a well-known face, 
only glorified. She, who had been a slave, now was 
arrayed more brilliantly than an oriental queen; 
and she looked at Callista with a smile so sweet, that 
Callista felt she could but dance to it. 

2. And as she looked more earnestly, doubting 
whether she should begin or not, the face changed, 

90 



callista's dream 91 

and now was more marvelous still. It had an inno- 
cence in its look, and also a tenderness, which be- 
spoke both Maid and Mother, and so transported 
Callista that she must needs advance towards her, 
out of love and reverence. And the Lady seemed 
to make signs of encouragement : so she began a 
solemn measure, unlike all dances of earth, with 
hands and feet, serenely moving on towards what 
she heard some of them call a great action and a 
glorious consummation, though she did not know 
what they meant. At length she was fain to sing as 
well as dance ; and her words were, " In the Name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost " ; on which another said, " A good begin- 
ning of the sacrifice." And when she had come 
close to this gracious figure, there was a fresh 
change. The face, the features were the same; 
but the light of Divinity now seemed to beam 
through them, and the hair parted, and hung down 
on each side of the forehead ; and there was a 
crown of another fashion from the Lady's round 
about it, made of what looked like thorns. And the 
palms of the hands were spread out as if towards 
her, and there were marks or wounds in them. And 
the vestment had fallen, and there was a deep open- 
ing in the side. And as she stood entranced before 
Him, and motionless, she felt a consciousness that 
her own palms were pierced like His, and her feet 
also. And she looked round, and saw the likeness 
of His face and of His wounds upon all that com- 



92 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

pany. And now they were suddenly moving on, 
and bearing something, or some one, heavenwards ; 
and they too began to sing, and their words seemed 
to be, " Rejoice* with Me, for I have found My 
sheep," ever repeated. They went up through an 
avenue or long grotto, with torches of diamonds, 
and amethysts, and sapphires, which lit up its spars 
and made them sparkle. And she tried to look, but 
could not discover what they were carrying, till she 
heard a very piercing cry, which awoke her. ( Cal- 
lista, chap, xxxii.) 

Questions and Studies 

The element of time enters into the description, 
but not in a manner to destroy the descriptive type. 

Topics for study may be: (a) The calm beauty 
and vividness of the style. How are these secured ? 
(b) The simple diction, (c) The melody of the 
single words and rhythm of the sentences, (d) 
The use of " and " to begin the sentences. Cf . a 
similar usage in the Bible, especially in narrative 
passages. Coleridge observes that simple, unedu- 
cated persons express themselves in a series of 
simple sentences without any attempt at grammati- 
cal subordination of unimportant ideas. What do 
you feel to be the precise effect of the " ands," as 
used in the present passage? 

Discuss the whole topic of " symbolic suggestive- 
ness " in words and sentences as here illustrated. 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 93 

The chief elements of technique and style in description 
are illustrated in selections vi-xii. Thus, point of view 
(vi, vn), fundamental image (vi), effective choice of de- 
tails (viii, ix), unity of impression (vi, viii, ix), abundant 
use of concrete details (viii, ix), tone-color, including 
rhythm and melody (x, xi, xn), picturesqueness (viii, ix). 

What ought to impress the student i'n Newman's de- 
scriptive passages is his persistent use of the concrete. The 
lesson therefore is a golden one : in descriptive or narra- 
tive writing, in all writing that aims at vividness of por- 
trayal, be concrete, be definite. Don't stop at generalities. 
A series of specific, concrete details will palpitate with 
life and suggestiveness, where merely general statements 
would leave the reader's imagination and emotions alike 
untouched. 



C. EXPOSITION 

i. Definition. The essential idea of exposition, 
no matter what form the exposition takes, is that 
of explanation, interpretation. As often as we ex- 
plain, interpret, expound, we use exposition. Con- 
sequently exposition is a form of discourse which 
sets forth the meaning of general ideas or terms, 
of propositions and of concrete objects treated 
inter pretatively . 

,(a) Meaning. The answer to the question 
" What does this mean ? " will always be exposition. 
The question may regard a term, a general idea, a 
proposition, or some definite and concrete object, 
as a statue, a painting, a poem, a piece of music. 

(b) General Ideas are ideas representative of gen- 
eral or class-objects, as man, tree, poetry. Descrip- 
tion, unlike exposition, deals only with single, con- 
crete objects, as Napoleon, . Charter Oak, Paradise 
Lost. 

(c) Terms (general) are the verbal signs or sym- 
bols of general ideas. 

(d) Propositions. A proposition is the verbal 
sign or symbol of a judgment, or it is a statement 

95 



g6 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

affirming or denying something of a given subject. 
A proposition may be explained either (a) by ex- 
plaining the meaning of its separate terms or (b) 
by expounding the proposition as such, i.e., by 
showing precisely in what sense the predicate of 
the proposition is affirmed or denied of the subject. 

We explain or expound a proposition ; we ex- 
plain, expound, or define a term. Exposition under- 
takes only to explain propositions ; it belongs to 
argumentation to prove them. 

(e) Concrete Objects Treated Inter -pretatively. 
Description is a picturing in words of such details 
or aspects of a concrete object as strike the senses. 
Thus, to describe a painting is to enumerate such 
details as its size, shape, colors, figures, background, 
etc. But the questions may be asked, " What idea 
did the artist wish to convey by the painting ? What 
meaning or significance, if any, are we to attach to 
this color, to that figure, to this particular detail?" 
The answer to such questions will be exposition. 
As a consequence, whenever we express a meaning 
or interpretation we have found for a concrete ob- 
ject, the result is exposition and not description. 
We say, accordingly, " Explain this detail," i.e., in- 
terpret, make clear its significance, its hidden mean- 
ing. Sometimes the interpretation is conveyed im- 
plicitly, i.e., the particulars (e.g., in a narration) 
are so selected and arranged that the author's view 
or opinion regarding them is brought home to the 
reader without need of formal statement. This 



EXPOSITION 97 

method has been called concrete criticism, also in- 
terpretative presentation, also expository narration 
or expository description, according as exposition 
uses one or the other medium. 

2. Types. A composition may be expository in 
method (form) or in purpose only. If in method, 
then it employs the usual processes of exposition 
(definition and division) and such amplifying de- 
vices as illustration, antithesis or contrast, obverse 
statement (telling what a thing is not), comparison, 
repetition, etc. If in purpose only, then the form 
may be narration, description, or argumentation. 

While aiming at exposition or explanation as the 
end in view, we may resort to narration, description, 
or argumentation to accomplish our purpose. Hence 
arise the types known as Expository (Interpreta- 
tive) Narration or Description. In particular, Ex- 
pository Narration (i.e., narration with expository 
purpose or intent) may take the following forms: 

(a) The so-called novel of purpose, at least in 
many cases. Thus Dickens in Nicholas Nickleby 
portrays certain social conditions through the me- 
dium of fictitious narrative. The work is, in form, 
narration (a novel) with exposition (of social con- 
ditions) and even persuasion (to reform) for its 
end. 

(b) The parables of the Bible, also fables, alle- 
gories, etc. 

(c) Generalized Narrative, e.g., the passage of 
a bill through Congress, the process of mining and 



98 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

smelting ore, the manufacture of an auto, " the 
biography of a raindrop, a grain of sand, a pin." 

(d) Narrative with the emphasis laid on inter- 
pretation. Thus the details of a battle may be so 
arranged in the telling as to bring out and emphasize 
the author's theory as to why the battle issued as it 
did. 

3. Style. The aim of exposition is to make some- 
thing clear to the mind of another. Hence clear- 
ness is the typical quality of an effective expository 
style. 



XIII. THE IDEA OF GOD 

i. Now what is Theology? First, I will tell you 
what it is not. ... I mean none of these things by 
Theology, I simply mean the Science of God, or the 
truths we know about God put into system ; just 
as we have a science of the stars, and call it astron- 
omy, or of the crust of the earth, and call it geology. 

2. For instance, I mean, for this is the main 
point, that, as in the human frame there is a living 
principle, acting upon it and through it by means 
of volition, so, behind the veil of the visible universe, 
there is an invisible, intelligent Being, acting on and 
through it, as and when He will. Further, I mean 
that this invisible Agent is in no sense a soul of the 
world, after the analogy of human nature, but, on 
the contrary, is absolutely distinct from the world, 
as being its Creator, Upholder, Governor, and Sov- 
ereign Lord. Here we are at once brought into the 
circle of doctrines which the idea of God embodies. 
I mean then by the Supreme Being, one who is 
simply self-dependent, and the only Being who 
is such ; moreover, that He is without beginning or 
Eternal, and the only Eternal; that in consequence 
He has lived a whole eternity by Himself ; and 
hence that He is all-sufficient, sufficient for His own 

99 



100 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

blessedness, and all-blessed, and ever-blessed. Fur- 
ther, I mean a Being, who, having these preroga- 
tives, has the Supreme Good, or rather is the Su- 
preme Good, or has all the attributes of Good in in- 
finite intenseness ; all wisdom, all truth, all justice, 
all love, all holiness, all beautifulness ; who is om- 
nipotent, omniscient, omnipresent ; ineffably one, 
absolutely perfect ; and such, that what we do not 
know and cannot even imagine of Him, is far more 
wonderful than what we do and can. I mean One 
who is sovereign over His own will and actions, 
though always according to the eternal Rule of right 
and wrong, which is Himself. I mean, moreover, 
that He created all things out of nothing, and pre- 
serves them every moment, and could destroy them 
as easily as He made them ; and that, in conse- 
quence, He is separated from them by an abyss, and 
is incommunicable in all His attributes. And fur- 
ther, He has stamped upon all things, in the hour 
of their creation, their respective natures, and has 
given them their work and mission and their length 
of days, greater or less, in their appointed place. I 
mean, too, that He is ever present with His works, 
one by one, and confronts everything He has made 
by His particular and most loving Providence, and 
manifests Himself to each according to its needs ; 
and has on rational beings imprinted the moral law, 
and given them power to obey it, imposing on them 
the duty of worship and service, searching and scan- 
ning them through and through with His omniscient 



THE IDEA OF GOD IOI 

eye, and putting before them a present trial and a 
judgment to come. 

3. Such is what Theology teaches about God, a 
doctrine, as the very idea of its subject-matter pre- 
supposes, so mysterious as in its fullness to lie be- 
yond any system, and in particular aspects to be 
simply external to nature, and to seem in parts even 
to be irreconcilable with itself, the imagination being 
unable to embrace what the reason determines.- It 
teaches of a Being infinite, yet personal ; all-blessed, 
yet ever operative; absolutely separate from the 
creature, yet in every part of the creation at every 
moment ; above all things, yet under everything. 
It teaches of a Being who, though the highest, yet 
in the work of creation, conversation, government, 
retribution, makes Himself, as it were, the minister 
and servant of all ; who, though inhabiting eternity, 
allows Himself to take an interest, and to have a 
sympathy, in the matters of space and time. His 
are all beings, visible and invisible, the noblest and 
the vilest of them. His are the substance, and the 
operation, and the results of that system of physical 
nature into which we are born. His too are the 
powers and achievements of the intellectual es- 
sences, on which He has bestowed an independent 
action and the gift of origination. The laws of the 
universe, the principles of truth, the relation of one 
thing to another, their qualities and virtues, the 
order and harmony of the whole, all that exists, is 
from Him ; and, if evil is not from Him, as as- 



102 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

sureclly it is not, this is because evil has no substance 
of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, 
or corruption of that which has substance. All we 
see, hear, and touch, the remote sideral firmament, 
as well as our own sea and land, and the elements 
which compose them, and the ordinances they obey 
are His. The primary atoms of matter, their prop- 
erties, their mutual action, their disposition and col- 
location, electricity, magnetism, gravitation, light 
and whatever other subtle principles or operations 
the wit. of man is detecting or shall detect are the 
work of His hands. From Him has been every 
movement which has convulsed and refashioned the 
surface of the earth. The most insignificant or un- 
sightly insect is from Him, and good in its kind ; 
the ever-teeming, inexhaustible swarms of animal- 
cule, the myriads of living motes invisible to the 
naked eye, the restless ever-spreading vegetation 
which creeps like a garment over the whole earth, 
the lofty cedar, the umbrageous banana are His. 
His are the tribes and families of birds and beasts, 
their graceful forms, their wild gestures, and their 
passionate cries. 

4. And so in the intellectual, moral, social, and 
political world. Man, with his motives and works, 
his languages, his propagation, his diffusion, is from 
Him. Agriculture, medicine, and the arts of life 
are His gifts. Society, laws, government, He is 
their sanction. The pageant of earthly royalty has 
the semblance and the benediction of the Eternal 



THE IDEA OF GOD IO3 

King. Peace and civilization, commerce and ad- 
venture, wars when just, conquest when humane 
and necessary, have His cooperation and His bless- 
ing upon them. The course of events, the revolu- 
tion of empires, the rise and fall of states, the pe- 
riods and eras, the progresses and the retrogressions 
of the world's history, not indeed the incidental sin, 
over-abundant as it is, but the great outlines and 
the results of human affairs, are from His disposi- 
tion. The elements and types and seminal principles 
and constructive powers of the moral world, in ruins 
though it be, are to be referred to Him. He " en- 
lighteneth* every man that cometh into this world." 
His are the dictates of the moral sense, and the re- 
tributive reproaches of conscience. To Him must 
be ascribed the rich endowments of the intellect, 
the irradiation of genius, the imagination of the 
poet, the sagacity of the politician, the wisdom (as 
Scripture calls it), which now rears and decorates 
the Temple, now manifests itself in proverb or in 
parable. The old saws of nations, the majestic pre- 
cepts of philosophy, the luminous maxims of law, 
the oracles of individual wisdom, the traditionary 
rules of truth, justice, and religion, even though em- 
bedded in the corruption, or alloyed with the pride, 
of the world, betoken His original agency and His 
long-suffering presence. Even where there is ha- 
bitual rebellion against Him, or profound far- 
spreading social depravity, still the undercurrent, 
or the heroic outburst, of natural virtue, as well as 



104 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

the yearnings of the heart after what it has not, 
and its presentiment of its true remedies, are to be 
ascribed to the Author of all good. Anticipations 
or reminiscences of His glory haunt the mind of 
the self-sufficient sage, and of the pagan devotee ; 
His writing is upon the wall, whether of the Indian 
fane, or of the porticoes of Greece. He introduces 
Himself, He all but concurs, according to His good 
pleasure, and in His selected season, in the issues 
of unbelief, superstition, and false worship, and He 
changes the character of acts by His overruling 
operation. He condescends, though He gives no 
sanction, to the altars and shrines of imposture, and 
He makes His own fiat the substitute for its sor- 
ceries. He speaks amid the incantations of Ba- 
laam,* raises Samuel's* spirit in the witch's cavern, 
prophesies of the Messias by the tongue of the 
Sibyl,* forces Python* to recognize His ministers, 
and baptizes by the hand of the misbeliever. He is 
with the heathen dramatist in his denunciations of 
injustice and tyranny, and his auguries of divine 
vengeance upon crime. Even on the unseemly leg- 
ends of a popular mythology He casts His shadow, 
and is dimly discerned in the ode or the epic, as in 
troubled water or in fantastic dreams. All that is 
good, all that is true, all that is beautiful, all that is 
beneficent, be it great or small, be it perfect or frag- 
mentary, natural as well as supernatural, moral as 
well as material, comes from Him. (The Idea of a 
University, pp. 60-66.) 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES IO5 



Questions and Studies 

The body of § i is omitted in the text as requir- 
ing special knowledge for its proper appreciation. 
What relation have the first and last sentences of 
§ 1 to the whole exposition ? Discuss the appro- 
priateness of " The Idea of God " as a heading for 
the selection. What does the author undertake to 
explain — the nature of theology or of God or 
of both? Theology, according to Newman, is 
" the truths we know about God put into system." 
Where does he begin to detail these truths ? "I 
mean, then, by the Supreme Being, one who is 
simply self-dependent, and the only Being who is 
such." Does this sentence embody a scientific defi- 
nition of God? In what sense may the whole ex- 
tract be called a " definition " ? 

Unity. What is the central idea of the passage 
and how is unity preserved with regard to it? Co- 
herence. Study the sequence of details as shown in 
this plan : 

God 

I. In Himself 
II. With respect to creatures: 

(a) creation 

(b) conservation 

(c) providence 

III. A Being of seemingly conflicting attributes 



106 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

IV. Dependence on God 

(a) of the material and brute creation 

(b) of man in all his activities, e.g., eco- 

nomic, social and political, moral, in- 
tellectual and religious 

Indicate the beginning and end of the several 
members of the plan. Observe the repetition of 
" I mean " (§2) and the aid of such repetition to 
coherence. Emphasis. Do beginning and end of 
the exposition make for emphasis? How? Do be- 
ginning and end of the several paragraphs also make 
for emphasis? 

Does the passage show eloquence? impassioned 
eloquence? Explain these terms. Discuss the style 
and the influence upon it of inversion and parallel 
structure. May the style be called a typical one for 
exposition. If so, why? 



XIV. THE POETRY OF MONACHISM 

i. I have now said enough both to explain and 
to vindicate the biographer of St. Maurus,* when 
he says that the object, and life, and reward of the 
ancient monachism was " summa* quies " — the 
absence of all excitement, sensible and intellectual, 
and the vision of Eternity. And therefore have I 
called the monastic state the most poetical of reli- 
gious disciplines. It was a return to that primitive 
age of the world, of which poets have so often sung, 
the simple life of Arcadia* or the reign of Saturn, 
when fraud and violence were unknown. It was 
a bringing back of those real, not fabulous, scenes 
of innocence and miracle, when Adam delved, or 
Abel kept sheep, or Noe planted the vine, and Angels 
visited them. It was a fulfillment in the letter, of 
the glowing* imagery of prophets, about the evan- 
gelical period. Nature for art, the wide earth and 
the majestic heavens for the crowded city, the sub- 
dued and docile beasts of the field for the wild 
passions and rivalries of social life, tranquillity 
for ambition and care, divine meditation for the 
exploits of the intellect, the Creator for the creature, 
such was the normal condition of the monk. He 
had tried the world, and found its hollowness ; or 
107 



108 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

he had eluded its fellowship, before it had solicited 
him ; — and so St. Anthony* fled to the desert, and 
St. Hilarion* sought the seashore, and St. Basil* 
ascended the mountain ravine, and St. Benedict 
took refuge in his cave, and St. Giles* buried him- 
self in the forest, and St. Martin* chose the broad 
river, in order that the world might be shut out 
of view, and the soul might be at rest. And such a 
rest of intellect and of passion as this is full of the 
elements of the poetical. 

2. I have no intention of committing myself here 
to a definition of poetry ; I may be thought wrong 
in the use of the term ; but, if I explain what I 
mean by it, no harm is done, whatever be my in- 
accuracy, and each reader may substitute for it- 
some word he likes better. Poetry, then, I conceive, 
whatever be its metaphysical essence, or however 
various may be its kinds, whether it more properly 
belongs to action or to suffering, nay, whether it is 
more at home with society or with nature, whether 
its spirit is seen to best advantage in Homer or in 
Virgil, at any rate, is always the antagonistic to 
science. As science makes progress in any subject- 
matter, poetry recedes from it. The two cannot 
stand together ; they belong respectively to two 
modes of viewing things, which are contradictory 
of each other. Reason investigates, analyzes, num- 
bers, weighs, measures, ascertains, locates the ob- 
jects of its contemplation, and thus gains a scien- 
tific knowledge of them. Science results in system, 



THE POETRY OF MONACHISM IO9 

which is complex unity; poetry delights in the in- 
definite and various as contrasted with unity, and 
in the simple as contrasted with system. The aim 
of science is to get a hold of things ; to grasp them, 
to handle them, to comprehend them ; that is (to use 
the familiar term), to master them, or to be supe- 
rior to them. Its success lies in being able to draw 
a line round them, and to tell where each of them 
is to be found within that circumference, and how 
each lies relatively to all the rest. Its mission is to 
destroy ignorance, doubt, surmise, suspense, illu- 
sions, fears, deceits, according to the " Felix* qui 
potuit rerum cognoscere causas " of the Poet, whose 
whole passage, by the way, may be taken as drawing 
out the contrast between the poetical and scientific. 
But as to the poetical, very different is the frame 
of mind which is necessary for its perception. It 
demands, as its primary condition, that we should 
not put ourselves above the objects in which it re- 
sides, but at their feet ; that we should feel them 
to be above and beyond us, that we should look up 
to them, and that, instead of fancying that we can 
comprehend them, we should take for granted that 
we are surrounded and comprehended by them our- 
selves. It implies that we understand them to be 
vast, immeasurable, impenetrable, inscrutable, mys- 
terious; so that at best we are only forming con- 
jectures about them, not conclusions, for the phe- 
nomena which they represent admit of many ex- 
planations, and we cannot know the true one. 



IIO PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

Poetry does not address the reason, but the imagina- 
tion and affections ; it leads to admiration, enthu- 
siasm, devotion, love. The vague, the uncertain, 
the irregular, the sudden, are among its attributes 
or sources. Hence it is that a child's mind is so 
full of poetry, because he knows so little ; and an 
old man of the world so devoid of poetry, because 
his experience of facts is so wide. Hence it is that 
nature is commonly more poetical than art, in spite 
of Lord Byron,* because it is less comprehensible 
and less patient of definitions ; history more poeti- 
cal than philosophy ; the savage than the citizen ; 
the knight-errant than the brigadier-general ; the 
winding bridle-path than the straight railroad ; the 
sailing vessel than the steamer ; the ruin than the 
spruce suburban box ;* the Turkish robe or Span- 
ish* doublet than the French dress coat. I have now 
said more than enough to make it clear what I mean 
by that element in the old monastic life to which I 
have given the name of the Poetical. 

3. Now, in many ways the family of St. Benedict 
answers to this description, as we shall see if we 
look into its history. Its spirit indeed is ever one, 
but not its outward circumstances. It is not an 
Order proceeding from one mind at a particular 
date, and appearing all at once in its full perfection, 
and in its extreme development, and in form one 
and the same everywhere and from first to last, as 
is the case with other great religious institutions; 
but it is an organization, diverse, complex, and ir- 



THE POETRY OF MONACHISM III 

regular, and variously ramified, rich rather than 
symmetrical, with many origins and centers and new 
beginnings and the action of local influences, like 
some great natural growth ; with tokens, on the 
face of it, of its being a divine work, not the mere 
creation of human genius. Instead of progressing 
on plan and system and from the will of a superior, 
it has shot forth and run out as if spontaneously, 
and has shaped itself according to events, from an 
irrepressible fullness of life within, and from the 
energetic self-action of its parts, like those symbol- 
ical creatures in the prophet's vision, which " went* 
every one of them straight forward, whither the 
impulse of the spirit was to go." It has been poured 
out over the earth, rather than been sent, with a 
silent mysterious operation, while men slept, and 
through the romantic adventures of individuals, 
which are well nigh without record ; and thus it 
has come down to us, not risen up among us, and 
is found rather than established. Its separate and 
scattered monasteries occupy the land, each in its 
place, with a majesty parallel, but superior, to that 
of old aristocratic houses. Their known antiquity, 
their unknown origin, their long eventful history, 
their connection with Saints and Doctors when on 
earth, the legends which hang about them, their 
rival ancestral honors, their extended sway perhaps 
over other religious houses, their hold upon the 
associations of the neighborhood, their traditional 
friendships and compacts with other great land- 



112 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

lords, the benefits they have conferred, the sanctity 
which they breathe, — these and the like attributes 
make them objects, at once of awe and of affection. 
(The Mission of St. Benedict in Historical 
Sketches, vol. ii, pp. 385-389.) 



Questions and Studies 

Note in the initial sentence of § 1 the neat sum- 
ming-up of the preceding section of the essay. 
What is the topic of § 1 ? its method of develop- 
ment? Is there a unifying theme in all three 
paragraphs? State it. Does the author really de- 
fine poetry in § 2 ? Does he in any manner explain 
its nature? What is his method of explanation? 
Is it an effective one? Express in terms of your 
own what the author means by the Poetical? Dis- 
cuss the examples in the second last sentence of § 2. 
What is the point of each? Explain in your own 
words how the " family of St. Benedict " answers 
to Newman's conception of the Poetical. 



XV. WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY? 

i. If I were asked to describe as briefly and popu- 
larly as I could, what a University was, I should 
draw my answer from its ancient designation of a 
Stadium Generate, or " School of Universal Learn- 
ing." This description implies the assemblage of 
strangers from all parts in one spot ; — from all 
parts; else, how will you find professors and stu- 
dents for every department of knowledge? and in 
one spot; else, how can there be any school at all? 
Accordingly, in its simple and rudimental form, it 
is a school of knowledge of every kind, consisting 
of teachers and learners from every quarter. Many 
things are requisite to complete and satisfy the idea 
embodied in this description ; but such as this a 
University seems to be in its essence, a place for the 
communication and circulation of thought, by means 
of personal intercourse, through a wide extent of 
country. 

2. There is nothing far-fetched or unreasonable 
in the idea thus presented to us ; and if this be a 
University, then a University does but contemplate 
a necessity of our nature, and is but one specimen 
in a particular medium, out of many which might 
be adduced in others, of a provision for that ne- 
"3 



114 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

cessity. Mutual education, in a large sense of the 
word, is one of the great and incessant occupations 
of human society, carried on partly with set purpose, 
and partly not. One generation forms another ; and 
the existing generation is ever acting and reacting 
upon itself in the persons of its individual members. 
Now, in this process, books, I need scarcely say, 
that is, the lit era scripta* are one, special instru- 
ment. It is true ; and emphatically so in this age. 
Considering the prodigious powers of the press, and 
how they are developed at this time in the never-re- 
mitting issue of periodicals, tracts, pamphlets, works 
in series, and light literature, we must allow there 
never was a time which promised fairer for dis- 
pensing with every other means of information and 
instruction. What can we want more, you will 
say, for the intellectual education of the whole man, 
and for every man, than so exuberant and diversi- 
fied and persistent a promulgation of all kinds of 
knowledge? Why, you will ask, need we go up to 
knowledge, when knowledge comes down to us? 
The Sibyl* wrote her prophecies upon the leaves of 
the forest, and wasted them ; but here such careless 
profusion might be prudently indulged, for it can 
be afforded without loss, in consequence of the al- 
most fabulous fecundity of the instrument which 
these latter ages have invented. We have sermons 
in stones, and books in running brooks ; works 
larger and more comprehensive than those which 
have gained for ancients an immortality, issue forth 



WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY? 115 

every morning-, and are projected onwards to the 
ends of the earth at the rate of hundreds of miles 
a day. Our seats are strewed, our pavements are 
powdered, with swarms of little tracts ; and the very 
bricks of our city walls preach wisdom, by inform- 
ing us by their placards where we can at once 
cheaply purchase it. 

3. I allow all this, and much more; such cer- 
tainly is our popular education, and its effects are 
remarkable. Nevertheless, after all, even in this 
age, whenever men are really serious about getting 
what, in the language of trade, is called " a good 
article," when they aim at something precise, some- 
thing refined, something really luminous, something 
really large, something choice, they go to another 
market ; they avail themselves, in some shape or 
other, of the rival method, the ancient method, of 
oral instruction, of present communication between 
man and man, of teachers instead of learning, of the 
personal influence of a master, and the humble in- 
itiation of a disciple, and, in consequence, of great 
centers of pilgrimage and throng, which such a 
method of education necessarily involves. This, 
I think, will be found to hold good in all those de- 
partments or aspects of society, which possess an 
interest sufficient to bind men together, or to con- 
stitute what is called " a world." It holds in the 
political world, and in the high world, and in the 
religious world; and it holds also in the literary 
and scientific world. 



Il6 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

4. If the actions of men may be taken as any 
test of their convictions, then we have reason for 
saying this, viz. : — that the province and the in- 
estimable benefit of the lit era scrip ta is that of being 
a record of the truth, and an authority of appeal, 
and an instrument of teaching in the hands of a 
teacher; but that, if we wish to become exact and 
fully furnished in any branch of knowledge which 
is diversified and complicated, we must consult the 
living man and listen to his living voice. I am not 
bound to investigate the cause of this, and anything 
I may say will, I am conscious, be short of its full 
analysis ; — perhaps we may suggest that no books 
can get through the number of minute questions 
which it is possible to ask on any extended subject, 
or can hit upon the very difficulties which are sev- 
erally felt by each reader in succession. Or again, 
that no book can convey the special spirit and deli- 
cate peculiarities of its subject with that rapidity 
and certainty which attend on the sympathy of mind 
with mind, through the eyes, the look, the accent, and 
the manner, in casual expressions thrown off at the 
moment, and the unstudied turns of familiar con- 
versation. But I am already dwelling too long on 
what is but an incidental portion of my main sub- 
ject. Whatever be the cause, the fact is undeniable. 
The general principles of any study you may learn 
by books at home; but .the detail, the color, the 
tone, the air, the life which makes it live in us, you 
must catch all these from those in whom it lives 



WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY? II7 

already. You must imitate the student in French 
or German, who is not content with his grammar, 
but goes to Paris or Dresden : you must take ex- 
ample from the young artist, who aspires to visit 
the great Masters in Florence and in Rome. Till 
we have discovered some intellectual daguerreotype, 
which takes off the course of thought, and the form, 
lineaments, and features of truth, as completely and 
minutely, as the optical instrument reproduces the 
sensible object, we must come to the teachers of 
wisdom to learn wisdom, we must repair to the foun- 
tain, and drink there. Portions of it may go from 
thence to the ends of the earth by means of books ; 
but the fullness is in one place alone. It is in such 
assemblages and congregations of intellect that 
books themselves, the master-pieces of human ge- 
nius, are written, or at least originated. 

5. The principle on which I have been insisting 
is so obvious, and instances in point are so ready, 
that I should think it tiresome to proceed with the 
subject, except that one or two illustrations may 
serve to explain my own language about it, which 
may not have done justice to the doctrine which it 
has been intended to enforce. 

6. But I have said more than enough in illustra- 
tion ; I end as I began ; — a University is a place 
of concourse, whither students come from every 
quarter for every kind of knowledge. You cannot 
have the best of every kind everywhere; you must 



Il8 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

go to some great city or emporium for it. There 
you have all the choicest productions of nature and 
art together, which you find each in its own sepa- 
rate place elsewhere. All the riches of the land, 
and of the earth, are carried up thither; there are 
the best markets, and there the best workmen. It 
is the center of trade, the supreme court of fashion, 
the umpire of rival talents, and the standard of 
things rare and precious. It is the place for seeing 
galleries of first-rate pictures, and for hearing won- 
derful voices and performers of transcendent skill. 
It is the place for great preachers, great orators, 
great nobles, great statesmen. In the nature of 
things, greatness and unity go together ; excellence 
implies a center. And such for the third or fourth 
time, is a University; I hope I do not weary out 
the reader by repeating it. It is the place to which 
a thousand schools make contributions ; in which 
the intellect may safely range and speculate, sure to 
find its equal in some antagonistic activity, and its 
judge in the tribunal of truth. It is a place where 
inquiry is pushed forward, and discoveries verified 
and perfected, and rashness rendered innocuous, and 
error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, 
and knowledge with knowledge. It is the place 
where the professor becomes eloquent, and is a mis- 
sionary and preacher, displaying his science in its 
most complete and most winning form, pouring it 
forth with the zeal of enthusiasm, and lighting up 
his own love of it in the breasts of his hearers. It 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES II9 

is the place where the catechist makes good his 
ground as he goes, treading in the truth day by day 
into the ready memory, and wedging and tightening 
it into the expanding reason. It is a place which 
wins the admiration of the young by its celebrity, 
kindles the middle-aged by its beauty, and rivets the 
fidelity of the old by its associations. It is a seat 
of wisdom, a light of the world, a minister of the 
faith, an Alma Mater of the rising generation. It 
is this and a great deal more, and demands a some- 
what better head than mine to describe it well. 

7. Such is a University in its idea and in its pur- 
pose ; such in good measure has it before now been 
in fact. Shall it ever be again ? We are going for- 
ward in the strength of the Cross, under the pat- 
ronage of the Blessed Virgin, in the name of St. 
Patrick,* to attempt it. (Historical Sketches, vol. 
iii, pp. 6-9, 15-17.) 

Questions and Studies 

The first step in exposition is definition. Study 
§ i; for brief, popular definition. Note the devel- 
opment, viz., definition, exposition of terms, repe- 
tition. In what sense may the whole selection be 
called definition? In § 6 the author returns to his 
original purpose. What is this? Note here one of 
Newman's favorite devices in exposition and argu- 
mentation, viz., to end by restating in more detailed 
and emphatic form some theme or proposition set 



120 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

forth in the initial paragraph. Analyze the topical 
development of § 6, especially for skillful use of rep- 
etition. (The omitted paragraphs are taken up 
with illustrations of the principle on which New- 
man is insisting.) No writer was ever more fond 
of concrete illustration than Newman. Discuss 
the advantages in expository writing of apt, con- 
crete, copious illustration. 

Unity. Does the author do more than merely 
answer the question " What is a University? "? If 
so, does unity suffer? What is there to justify the 
discussion of the necessity of a university in a chap- 
ter which professes to deal with the meaning of a 
university? Coherence. Observe the use of all the 
chief devices for coherence in composition, e.g., 
abundant connectives, clear transitions, a rational 
principle of order. Emphasis. Are beginning and 
end massed with a view to interest? to emphasis? 
Make an outline of the passage, showing the logical 
and structural relations of the parts. 

Newman considered the series of papers to which 
the present essay belongs as written in a " conver- 
sational tone." {Historical Sketches, vol. iii, Rise 
and Progress of Universities, Advertisement.) Do 
you concur in this criticism as far as it concerns the 
present essay? Is the style clear? direct? ani- 
mated? popular? Discuss its merits as a typical 
expository style. 



XVI. THE DEFINITION OF A GENTLE- 
MAN 

i. Hence it is that it is almost a definition of a 
gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. 
This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, 
accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely remov- 
ing the obstacles which hinder the free and unem- 
barrassed action of those about him ; and he 
concurs with their movements rather than takes the 
initiative himself. His benefits may be considered 
as parallel to what are called comforts or conven- 
iences in arrangements of a personal nature : like an 
easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dis- 
pelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides 
both means of rest and animal heat without them. 
The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids 
whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of 
those with whom he is cast ; — all clashing of opin- 
ion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, 
or gloom, or resentment ; his great concern being to 
make everyone at their ease and at home. He has 
his eyes on all his company ; he is tender towards 
the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful 
towards the absurd ; he can recollect to whom he is 
speaking ; he guards against unseasonable allusions, 



122 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

or topics which may irritate; he is seldom promi- 
nent in conversation, and never wearisome. He 
makes light of favors while he does them, and seems 
to be receiving when he is conferring. He never 
speaks of himself except when compelled, never de- 
fends himself by mere retort, he has no ears for 
slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives 
to those who interfere with him, and interprets 
everything for the best. He is never mean or little 
in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never 
mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for argu- 
ments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. 
From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the 
maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever 
conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were 
one day to be our friend. He has too much good 
sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well em- 
ployed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear 
malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on 
philosophical principles ; he submits to pain, because 
it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is ir- 
reparable, and to death, because it is his destiny. If 
he engages in controversy of any kind, his disci- 
plined intellect preserves him from the blundering 
discourtesy of better, perhaps, but less educated 
minds ; who, like blunt weapons, tear and hack in- 
stead of cutting clean, who mistake the point in ar- 
gument, waste their strength on trifles, misconceive 
their adversary, and leave the question more in- 
volved than they find it. He may be right or wrong 



THE DEFINITION OF A GENTLEMAN I23 

in his opinion, but he is too clear-headed to be un- 
just; he is as simple as he is forcible, and as brief as 
he is decisive. Nowhere shall we find greater can- 
dor, consideration, indulgence: he throws himself 
into the minds of his opponents, he accounts for 
their mistakes. He knows the weakness of human 
reason as well as its strength, its province and its 
limits. If he be an unbeliever, he will be too pro- 
found and large-minded to ridicule religion or to 
act against it; he is too wise to be a dogmatist or 
fanatic in his infidelity. He respects piety and de- 
votion ; he even supports institutions as venerable, 
beautiful, or useful, to which he does not assent ; he 
honors the ministers of religion, and it contents him 
to decline its mysteries without assailing or denounc- 
ing them. He is a friend of religious toleration, 
and that, not only because his philosophy has taught 
him to look on all forms of faith with an impartial 
eye, but also from the gentleness and effeminacy of 
feeling, which is the attendant on civilization. 

2. Not that he may not hold a religion, too, in 
his own way, even when he is not a Christian. In 
that case his religion is one of imagination and sen- 
timent ; it is the embodiment of those ideas of the 
sublime, majestic, and beautiful, without which 
there can be no large philosophy. Sometimes he 
acknowledges the being of God, sometimes he in- 
vests an unknown principle or quality with the at- 
tributes of perfection. And this deduction of his 
reason, or creation of his fancy, he makes the occa- 



124 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

sion of such excellent thoughts, and the starting- 
point of so varied and systematic a teaching, that 
he even seems like a disciple of Christianity itself. 
From the very accuracy and steadiness of his logical 
powers, he is able to see what sentiments are con- 
sistent in those who hold any religious doctrine at 
all, and he appears to others to feel and to hold a 
whole circle of theological truths, which exist in his 
mind no otherwise than as a number of deductions. 
3. Such are some of the lineaments of the ethical 
character, which the cultivated intellect will form, 
apart from religious principle. They are seen within 
the pale of the Church and without it, in holy men, 
and in profligate ; they form the beau-ideal* of the 
world ; they partly assist and partly distort the 
development of the Catholic. They may subserve 
the education of a St. Francis de Sales* or a Car- 
dinal Pole ;* they may be the limits of the contem- 
plation of a Shaftesbury* or a Gibbon.* Basil and 
Julian* were fellow-students at the schools of 
Athens ; and one became the Saint and Doctor of 
the Church, the other her scoffing and relentless foe. 
(The Idea of a University, pp. 208-211.) 



Questions and Studies 

Why does the author qualify the statement in the 
first sentence of § 1 by " almost " ? What kind of 
definition is exemplified in this sentence? What is 
the topic of § 1 and its method of development? 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 1 25 

What effect of coherence or other quality results 
from the repetition of " he " in § I ? Discuss § 3 
as an example of the rhetorical value of the spe- 
cific term. Substitute abstract equivalents for the 
proper names and note the results. 

,The present passage, with some additional para- 
graphs, is found in W. S. Lilly's Characteristics of 
Newman under the caption " The Ethics of Cul- 
ture." Does the caption fit? If so, why? To what 
extent is the description in § 1 applicable to one who 
is a gentleman on Christian or supernatural 
grounds ? " He is a friend of religious toleration, 
etc." Clearly the author does not imply that toler- 
ance of dogmatic error is a postulate of true 
civilization. 



XVII. ACCURACY OF MIND 

I. It has often been observed that, when the eyes 
of the infant first open upon the world, the reflected 
rays of light which strike them from the myriad of 
surrounding objects present to him no image, but a 
medley of colors and shadows. They do not form 
into a whole ; they do not rise into foregrounds and 
melt into distances ; they do not divide into groups ; 
they do not coalesce into unities ; they do not com- 
bine into persons ; but each particular hue and tint 
stands by itself, wedged in amid a thousand others 
upon the vast and flat mosaic, having no intelli- 
gence, and conveying no story, any more than the 
wrong side of some rich tapestry. The little babe 
stretches out his arms and fingers, as if to grasp 
or to fathom the many-colored vision ; and thus he 
gradually learns the connection of part with part, 
separates what moves from what is stationary, 
watches the coming and going of figures, masters 
the idea of shape and of perspective, calls in the 
information conveyed through the other senses to 
assist him in his mental process, and thus gradually 
converts a kaleidoscope into a picture. The first 
view was the more splendid, the second the more 
real; the former more poetical, the latter more 
126 



ACCURACY OF MIND \2 h J 

philosophical. Alas ! what are we doing all through 
life, both as a necessity and as a duty, but unlearn- 
ing the world's poetry, and attaining to its prose ! 
This is our education, as boys and as men, in the 
action of life, and in the closet or library; in our 
affections, in our aims, in our hopes, and in our 
memories. And in like manner it is the education 
of our intellect ; I say, that one main portion of in- 
tellectual education, of the labors of both school and 
university, is to remove the original dimness of the 
mind's eye ; to strengthen and perfect its vision ; 
to enable it to look out into the world right forward, 
steadily and truly ; to give the mind clearness, ac- 
curacy, precision ; to enable it to use words aright, 
to understand what it says, to conceive justly what 
it thinks about, to abstract, compare, analyze, divide, 
define, and reason, correctly. There is a particular 
science which takes these matters in hand, and it 
is called logic ; but it is not by logic, certainly not 
by logic alone, that the faculty I speak of is ac- 
quired. The infant does not learn to spell and read 
the hues upon his retina by any scientific rule ; nor 
does the student learn accuracy of thought by any 
manual or treatise. The instruction given him, of 
whatever kind, if it be really instruction, is mainly, 
or at least preeminently, this, — a discipline in ac- 
curacy of mind. 

2. Boys are always more or less inaccurate, and 
too many, or rather the majority, remain boys all 
their lives. When, for instance, I hear speakers at 



128 TROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

public meetings declaiming about " large and en- 
lightened views," or about " freedom of conscience," 
or about " the Gospel," or any other popular sub- 
ject of the day, I am far from denying that some 
among them know what they are talking about; 
but it would be satisfactory, in a particular case, to 
be sure of the fact; for it seems to me that those 
household words may stand in a man's mind for a 
something or other, very glorious indeed, but very 
misty, pretty much like the idea of " civilization " 
which floats before the mental vision of a Turk, — 
that is, if, when he interrupts his smoking to utter 
the word, he condescends to reflect whether it has 
any meaning at all. Again, a critic in a periodical 
dashes off, perhaps, his praises of a new work, as 
" talented, original, replete with intense interest, ir- 
resistible in argument, and, in the best sense of 
the word, a very readable book ; " — can we really 
believe that he cares to attach any definite sense 
to the words of which he is so lavish ? nay, that, if 
he had a habit of attaching sense to them, he could 
ever bring himself to so prodigal and wholesale an 
expenditure of them? 

3. To a short-sighted person, colors run together 
and intermix, outlines disappear, blues and reds and 
yellows become russets or browns, the lamps or 
candles of an illumination spread into an unmeaning 
glare, or dissolve into a milky way. He takes up 
an eye-glass, and the mist clears up ; every image 
stands out distinct, and the rays of light fall back 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 1 29 

upon their centers. It is this haziness of intellectual 
vision which is the malady of all classes of men by 
nature, of those who read and write and compose, 
quite as well as of those who cannot, — of all who 
have not had a really good education. Those who 
cannot either read or write may, nevertheless, be 
in the number of those who have remedied and got 
rid of it ; those who can, are too often still under its 
power. It is an acquisition quite separate from mis- 
cellaneous information, or knowledge of books. 
This is a large subject, which might be pursued at 
great length, and of which here I shall but attempt 
one or two illustrations. (The Idea of a University, 
PP- 33I-333-) 

Questions and Studies 

Here the author not only brings home to us in a 
few vivid touches the meaning of mental accuracy, 
but insists on the view that discipline in it is a 
main object of intellectual education. Therefore 
what two literary types are exemplified? Express 
in language of your own the meaning of mental ac- 
curacy as here explained. (The few paragraphs of 
the extract serve to introduce forty pages of illus- 
tration, the object of which is to bring out sharply 
the contrast between mental accuracy and mental 
inaccuracy. Conceived in a spirit of humor and 
phrased in Newman's happiest and most convincing 
manner, this part of the Idea of a University is 
unrivaled as a contribution to the literature of edu- 



130 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

cation. Every student, whether of literature or of 
other subjects, should read and reread it.) 

Note the author's use of contrast ("accuracy of 
mind" and "haziness of intellectual vision") ; of 
illustration ; of analogy. Discuss the value of con- 
trast as an aid to exposition. Would you charac- 
terize the present bit of exposition as " popular " ? 
If so, what makes it " popular "? Note the rhythm 
of the first half of § 1. Try to reduce the rhyth- 
mical effect to its causes. What bearing has the 
rhythm on the exposition as such? 



XVIII. ST. PHILIP NERI 

i. Such at least is the lesson which I am taught 
by all the thought which I have been able to bestow 
upon the subject; such is the lesson which I have 
gained from the history of my own special Father 
and Patron, St. Philip Neri.* He lived in an age 
as traitorous to the interests of Catholicism as any 
that preceded it, or can follow it. He lived at a time 
when pride mounted high, and the senses held rule ; 
a time when kings and nobles never had more of 
state and homage, and never less of personal re- 
sponsibility and peril ; when medieval winter was 
receding, and the summer sun of civilization was 
bringing into leaf and flower a thousand forms of 
luxurious enjoyment ; when a new world of thought 
and beauty had opened upon the human mind, in 
the discovery of the treasures of classic literature 
and art. He saw the great and the gifted, dazzled 
by the Enchantress, and drinking in the magic of 
her song ; he saw the high and the wise, the student 
and the artist, painting, and poetry, and sculpture, 
and music, and architecture, drawn within her 
range, and circling round the abyss : he saw heathen 
forms mounting thence, and forming in the thick 
air : — all this he saw, and he perceived that the mis- 
131 



132 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

chief was to be met, not with argument, not with 
science, not with protests and warnings, not by the 
recluse or the preacher, but by means of the great 
counter-fascination of purity and truth. He was 
raised up to do a work almost peculiar in the 
Church, — not to be a Jerome Savonarola,* though 
Philip had a true devotion towards him and a ten- 
der memory of his Florentine house; not to be a 
St. Charles,* though in his beaming countenance 
Philip had recognized the aureole of a saint ; not to 
be a St. Ignatius, wrestling with the foe, though 
Philip was termed the Society's bell of call, so many 
subjects did he send to it ; not to be a St. Francis 
Xavier,* though Philip had longed to shed his blood 
for Christ in India with him ; not to be a St. Caje- 
tan,* or hunter of souls, for Philip preferred, as he 
expressed it, tranquilly to cast in his net to gain 
them ; he preferred to yield to the stream, and direct 
the current, which he could not stop, of science, liter- 
ature, art, and fashion, and to sweeten and to sanc- 
tify what God had made very good and man had 
spoilt. 

2. And so he contemplated as the idea of his 
mission, not the propagation of the faith, nor the 
exposition of doctrine, nor the catechetical schools ; 
whatever was exact and systematic pleased him not ; 
he put from him monastic rule and authoritative 
speech, as David* refused the armor of his king. 
No; he would be but an ordinary individual priest 
as other : and his weapons should be but unaffected 



ST. PHILIP NERI I33 

humility and unpretending; love. All he did was 
to be done by the light, and fervor, and convincing 
eloquence of his personal character and his easy 
conversation. He came to the Eternal City and he 
sat himself down there, and his home and his family 
gradually grew up around him, by the spontaneous 
accession of materials from without. He did not 
so much seek his own as draw them to him. He 
sat in his small room, and they in their gay worldly 
dresses, the rich and the wellborn, as well as the 
simple and the illiterate, crowded into it. In the 
mid-heats of summer, in the frosts of winter, still 
was he in that low and narrow cell at San Giro- 
lamo, reading the hearts of those who came to him, 
and curing their souls' maladies by the very touch 
of his hand. It was a vision of the Magi worshiping 
the infant Saviour, so pure and innocent, so sweet 
and beautiful was he ; and so loyal and so dear to 
the gracious Virgin Mother. And they who came 
remained gazing and listening, till at length, first 
one and then another threw off their bravery, and 
took his poor cassock and girdle instead : or, if they 
kept it, it was to put haircloth under it, or to take 
on them a rule of life, while to the world they looked 
as before. 

3. In the words of his biographer, " he was all 
things to all men. He suited himself to noble and 
ignoble, young and old, subjects and prelates, 
learned and ignorant ; and received those who were 
strangers to him with singular benignity, and em- 



134 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

braced them with as much love and charity as if he 
had been a long while expecting them. When he 
was called upon to be merry he was so ; if there was 
a demand upon his sympathy he was equally ready. 
He gave the same welcome to all : caressing the 
poor equally with the rich, and wearying himself to 
assist all to the utmost limits of his power. In con- 
sequence of his being so accessible and willing to 
receive all comers, many went to him every day, and 
some continued for the space of thirty, nay forty 
years, to visit him very often both morning and 
evening, so that his room went by the agreeable 
nickname of the Home of Christian mirth. Nay, 
people came to him, not only from all parts of Italy, 
but from France, Spain, Germany, and all Christen- 
dom : and even the infidels and Jews, who had ever 
any communication with him, revered him as a 
holy man." The first families of Rome, the Mas- 
simi, the Aldobrandini, the Colonnas, the Altieri, 
the Vitelleschi, were his friends and his penitents. 
Nobles* of Poland, Grandees* of Spain, Knights* 
of Malta, could not leave Rome without coming to 
him. Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops were 
his intimates ; Federigo Borromeo* haunted his 
room and got the name of " Father Philip's soul." 
The Cardinal-Archbishops of Verona and Bologna 
wrote books in his honor. Pope Pius the Fourth* 
died in his arms. Lawyers, painters, musicians, 
physicians, it was the same too with them. Baron- 
ius,* Zazzara,* and Ricci,* left the law at his bid- 



ST. PHILIP NERI 135 

ding, and joined his congregation, to do its work, 
to write the annals of the Church, and to die in the 
odor of sanctity. Palestrina* had Father Philip's 
ministrations in his last moments. Animuccia* hung 
about him during life, sent him a message after 
death, and was conducted by him through Purga- 
tory to Heaven. And who was he, I say, all the 
while, but an humble priest, a stranger in Rome, 
with no distinction of family or letters, no claim of 
station or of office, great simply in the attraction 
with which a Divine Power had gifted him? and 
yet thus humble, thus unennobled, thus empty- 
handed, he has achieved the glorious title of Apostle 
of Rome. 

4. Well were it for his clients and children, 
Gentlemen, if they could promise themselves the 
very shadow of his special power, or could hope to 
do a miserable fraction of the sort of work in which 
he was preeminently skilled. But so far at least 
they may attempt, — to take his position, and to 
use his method, and to cultivate the arts of which 
he was so bright a pattern. For me, if it be God's 
blessed will that in the years now coming I am to 
have a share in the great undertaking, which has 
been the occasion and the subject of these Dis- 
courses, so far I can say for certain that, whether 
or not I can do anything at all in St. Philip's way, 
at least I can do nothing in any other. Neither by 
my habits of life, nor by vigor of age, am I fitted 
for the task of authority, or of rule, or of initiation. 



136 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

I do but aspire, if strength is given me, to be your 
minister in a work which must employ younger 
minds and stronger lives than mine. I am but fit 
to bear my witness, to proffer my suggestions, to 
express my sentiments, as has in fact been my occu- 
pation in these discussions : to throw such light 
upon general questions, upon the choice of objects, 
upon the import of principles, upon the tendency of 
measures, as past reflection and experience enable 
me to contribute. I shall have to make appeals to 
your consideration, your friendliness, your confi- 
dence, of which I have had so many instances, on 
which I so tranquilly repose ; and after all, neither 
you nor I must ever be surprised, should it so hap- 
pen that the Hand of Him, with whom are the 
springs of life and death, weighs heavy on me, and 
makes me unequal to anticipations in which you 
have been too kind and to hopes in which I may 
have been too sanguine. (The Idea of a Uni- 
versity, pp. 234-238.) 

Questions and Studies 

This sketch of St. Philip's character is immedi- 
ately preceded by the following sentence : " But, 
anyhow, her [i.e., the Church's] principle is one 
and the same throughout: not to prohibit truth of 
any kind, but to see that no doctrines pass under the 
name of Truth but those which claim it rightfully." 
The sketch, therefore, is not simply objective in 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES I37 

treatment ; it embodies and lays emphasis on what 
Newman conceives to be the saint's special mission 
in the Church. In other words, it contains expla- 
nation or interpretation, and therefore passes be- 
yond mere description into exposition. 

The author tells us that he has gained a certain 
lesson from the history of St. Philip Neri. What 
is it ? Do you find it expressed in § i ? Do the 
facts embodied in the sketch make the lesson clear? 
Note in § 1 the brilliant historical background fol- 
lowed by an elaborate obverse statement, one of 
Newman's favorite methods of amplification. Name 
the figures occurring in § i. What is the topic of 
§ 2 and its method of development? What signifi- 
cance do you see in the array of. proper names in 
§ 3 ? Discuss the meaning and advantages of the 
concrete treatment of a subject. Characterize the 
style of the passage. Why may we class the pas- 
sage as exposition rather than description? 



XIX. THE MASS 

" These are such difficult questions," answered 
Willis; " must I speak? Such difficult questions," 
he continued, rising into a more animated manner, 
and kindling as he went on ; "I mean, people view 
them so differently: it is so difficult to convey to 
one person the idea of another. The idea of wor- 
ship is different in the Catholic Church from the 
idea of it in your Church ; for, in truth, the reli- 
gions are different. Don't deceive yourself, my dear 
Bateman," he said tenderly. " It is not that ours 
is your religion carried a little farther, — a little 
too far, as you would say. No, they differ in kind, 
not in degree ; ours is one religion, yours another. 
And when the time comes, and come it will, for 
you, alien as you are now, to submit yourself to 
the gracious yoke of Christ, then, my dearest Bate- 
man, it will be faith which will enable you to bear 
the ways and usages of Catholics, which else might 
perhaps startle you. Else, the habit of years, the 
associations in your mind of a certain outward be- 
havior with real inward acts of devotion, might 
embarrass you, when you had to conform yourself 
to other habits, and to create for yourself other 
associations. But this faith, of which I speak, the 
138 



THE MASS 139 

great gift of God, will enable you in that day to 
overcome yourself, and to submit, as your judgment, 
your will, your reason, your affections, so your 
tastes and likings, to the rule and usage of the 
Church. Ah, that faith should be necessary in such 
a matter, and that what is so natural and becoming 
under the circumstances, should have need of an 
explanation ! I declare, to me," he said, and he 
clasped his hands on his knees, and looked forward 
as if soliloquizing, — " to me nothing is so consol- 
ing, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the 
Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Masses 
forever, and not be tired. It is not a mere form of 
words, — it is a great action, the greatest action 
that can be on earth. It is, not the invocation 
merely, but, if I dare use the word, the evocation of 
the Eternal. He becomes present on the altar in 
flesh and blood, before whom angels bow and devils 
tremble. This is that awful event which is the 
scope, and is the interpretation, of every part of the 
solemnity. Words are necessary, but as means, not 
as ends ; they are not mere addresses to the throne 
of grace, they are instruments of what is far higher, 
of consecration, of sacrifice. They hurry on as if 
impatient to fulfill their mission. Quickly they go, 
the whole is quick ; for they are all parts of one in- 
tegral action. Quickly they go ; for they are awful 
words of sacrifice, they are a work too great to delay 
upon ; as it was said in the beginning, ' What* thou 
doest, do quickly.' Quickly they pass ; for the Lord 



I40 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

Jesus goes with them, as He passed along the lake 
in the days of His flesh, quickly calling first one 
and then another. Quickly they pass ; because as 
the lightning* which shineth from one part of the 
heaven unto the other, so is the coming of the Son 
of Man. Quickly they pass; for they are as the 
words* of Moses, when the Lord came down in the 
cloud, calling on the Name of the Lord as He passed 
by, ' The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gra- 
cious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and 
truth.' And as Moses on the mountain, so we too 
' make haste and bow our heads to the earth, and 
adore.' So we, all around, each in his place, look 
out for the great Advent, ' waiting* for the moving 
of the water.' Each in his place, with his own heart, 
with his own wants, with his own thoughts, with his 
own intention, with his own prayers, separate but 
concordant, watching what is going on, watching its 
progress, uniting in its consummation ; — not pain- 
fully and hopelessly following a hard form of prayer 
from beginning to end, but, like a concert of musi- 
cal instruments, each different, but concurring in 
a sweet harmony, we take our part with God's 
priest, supporting him, yet guided by him. There 
are little children there, and old men, and simple 
laborers, and students in seminaries, priests prepar- 
ing for Mass, priests making their thanksgiving; 
there are innocent maidens, and there are penitent 
sinners ; but out of these many minds rises one 
eucharistic hymn, and the great Action is the meas- 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES I4I 

ure and scope of it. And oh, my dear Bateman," 
he added, turning to him, " you ask me whether this 
is not a formal, unreasonable service — it is wonder- 
ful ! " he cried, rising up, " quite wonderful. When, 
will these dear, good people be enlightened? 0* 
Sapientia, fortitcr suaviterque disponens omnia, 
Adonai, O Clavis David et Exspectatio gentium, 
z'cni ad salvandum nos, Domine Dens noster." (Loss 
and Gain, pt. ii, chap, xix.) 

Questions and Studies 

Is the exposition clear ? effective for the speaker's 
purpose? What is his method of exposition? The 
quick motion of the words and action of the Mass 
is particularly emphasized. In this connection, do 
you mark any symbolic, suggestive effect in the 
speaker's language? Note the position of 
" quickly " and determine the effect of such posi- 
tion. Characterize the style of the passage. Is it 
a style one would expect to find in dialogue ? How 
do you justify its exceptional tone for dialogue? 



XX. THE LION AND THE PAINTER 

1. Now then for my fable which is not the worse 
because it is old. The Man once invited the Lion 
to be his guest, and received him with princely hos- 
pitality. The Lion had the run of a magnificent 
palace, in which there were a vast many things to 
admire. There were large saloons and long cor- 
ridors, richly furnished and decorated, and filled 
with a profusion of fine specimens of sculpture and 
painting, the works of the first masters in either art. 
The subjects represented were various ; but the 
most prominent of them had an especial interest for 
the noble animal who stalked by them. It was that 
of the Lion himself ; and as the owner of the man- 
sion led him from one apartment to another, he did 
not fail to direct his attention to the indirect hom- 
age which these various groups and tableaux paid 
to the importance of the lion tribe. 

2. There was, however, one remarkable feature 
in all of them, to which the host, silent as he was 
from politeness, seemed not at all insensible; that 
diverse as were these representations, in one point 
they all agreed, that the man was always vic- 
torious, and the lion was always overcome. The 

142 



THE LION AND THE PAINTER I43 

man had it all his own way, and the lion was but 
a fool, and served to make him sport. There 
were exquisite works in marble, of Samson* rend- 
ing the lion like a kid, and young David* taking 
the lion by the beard and choking him. There 
was the man who ran his arm down the lion's 
throat, and held him fast by the tongue; and 
there was that other, who when carried off in 
his teeth, contrived to pull a penknife from his 
pocket, and lodge it in the monster's heart. Then 
there was a lion hunt, or what had been such, for 
the brute was rolling round in the agonies of death, 
and his conqueror on his bleeding horse was sur- 
veying these from a distance. There was a gladi- 
ator from the Roman amphitheater in mortal 
struggle with his tawny foe, and it was plain 
who was getting the mastery. There was a lion 
in a net ; a lion in a trap ; four lions, yoked 
in harness, were drawing the car of a Roman 
emperor; and elsewhere stood Hercules, clad in 
the lion's skin, and with the club which demolished 
him. 

3. Nor was this all : the lion was not only tri- 
umphed over, mocked, spurned ; but he was tortured 
into extravagant forms, as if he were not only the 
slave and creature, but the very creation of man. 
He became an artistic decoration, and an heraldic 
emblazonment. The feet of alabaster tables fell 
away into lions' paws. Lions' faces grinned on each 
side of the shining mantelpiece ; and lions' mouths 



144 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

held tight the handles of the doors. There were 
sphinxes too, half lion half woman; there were 
lions rampant holding flags, lions couchant, lions 
passant, lions regardant ; lions and unicorns ; there 
were lions white, black and red : in short, there was 
no misconception or excess of indignity which was 
thought too great for the lord of the forest and the 
king of brutes. After he had gone over the man- 
sion, his entertainer asked him what he thought of 
the splendors it contained ; and he in reply did full 
justice to the riches of its owner and the skill of 
its decorators, but he added, " Lions would have 
fared better, had lions been the artists." (The 
Present Position of Catholics in England, pp. 3, 4.) 

Questions and Studies 

A fable, as in the present instance, generally takes 
the form of narrative. Why, then, may we class 
the present selection as exposition? To determine 
the point of the fable, i.e., the truth or fact which 
the writer would bring home through its medium, 
read chapter i of The Present Position of Catholics 
in England. Study the means employed to make 
the fable tell as narrative. Is suspense well man- 
aged? climax? What is the topic of § 2? the 
method of development? Study the whole passage 
as an example of sustained concrete phrasing. 
Which of the two types, description or narration, 
predominates in the fable? 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 145 

Newman's temperament led him to make exposition his 
favorite literary type. All the pertinent devices of expo- 
sition are put to use in Selections xin-xx. Thus, defini- 
tion (xiii, xiv, xv, xvi), division (xiii), illustration (xiv, 
xv, xvu), contrast (xiv, xvn), particulars(xm, xvi, xvm), 
repetition (xiii, xv, xvi, xix), analogy (xx), 



D. ARGUMENTATION 

i. Definition. Argumentation is a form of dis- 
course in which one mind aims to bring another 
mind to see and accept the truth or falsity of a 
proposition. 

The proper business of argumentation is to con- 
vince. One may reason or argue with himself for 
merely speculative ends, e.g., to demonstrate a math- 
ematical truth. But argumentation as a literary 
type implies an action or effect external to the one 
who argues. It aims so to work upon another's 
mind as to bring him to see clearly a truth which 
before he was ignorant of or doubted or perhaps 
altogether denied. To do this is to convince; and 
conviction, as the Latin etymology of the term 
points out, implies an intellectual conquest. 

The use of argumentation calls for a proposition. 
We explain a term, but we argue a proposition. To 
argue a term is a plain impossibility. We must 
first affirm or deny something about a term before 
we are in a position to argue about it. . The term 
" science " offers material for endless exposition, 
but we provide no starting point for an argument 
147 



I48 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

until we assert that science is useful or dangerous 
or the mainstay of progress or the enemy of poetry 
or some other of the thousand things that can, 
rightly or wrongly, be said about it. 

2. Methods. There are recognized methods or 
types of argument, all of which it belongs to a 
manual of logic to explain. (Cf. also Coppens: 
Introduction to Oratorical' Composition, pp. 144 et 
seq.) Only a few headings are here set down. 

(a) Induction goes from particulars to generals. 
It starts with a group of particular facts and ends 
with a general truth or law. 

Deduction goes from generals to particulars. It 
issues in a truth narrower, more particularized than 
the one with which it starts. 

(b) An a priori argument goes forward to a con- 
clusion later in the real order than the premises. An 
a posteriori argument reasons back from experience 
as a basis to a truth prior to experience. 

(c) The syllogism, enthymeme, dilemma, sorites, 
and argumentum ad homincm are among the more 
common methods of logical attack. (Cf. Coppens, 
ib., pp. 144 et seq.) 

(d) Refutation (called also indirect or negative 
argumentation) is argumentation employed in show- 
ing a proposition to be false. 

3. Aids. Among the rhetorical aids to effective 
argumentation four may be noted : 

(a) A Clear-Cut Proposition. It is vital in ar- 
gument that no mistake be made about the point at 



ARGUMENTATION I49 

issue. One must see clearly at the outset what he 
has to prove or wishes to prove. Have, therefore, 
a definite, unmistakable proposition before you and 
stick to it. Newman's advice on sermon-writing is 
applicable to argumentation in all its forms. " Nay, 
I would go to the length of recommending a 
preacher to place a distinct categorical proposition 
before him, such as he can write down in a form 
of words, and to guide and limit his preparation 
by it, and to aim in all he says to bring it out and 
nothing else." {Idea of a University, p. 412.) 

(b) A Division of Material. The formal an- 
nouncement of the heads of discussion, with its 
supposed note of pedantry and awkward self-con- 
sciousness, has passed out of vogue. However, one 
may reasonably question the expediency of fore- 
going a rhetorical device which great masters of 
exposition and argument like Burke and Newman 
knew how to use with telling effect. If an explicit 
division is not embodied, in the argument, one must 
have at least before his mind's eye an orderly and 
consistent plan of the material he is to use. 

(c) Clear Transitions. Nothing bespeaks skill 
in argumentation more than ease in passing from 
one topic to another, without causing confusion in 
the mind of hearer or reader, who must never be 
at a loss to know in what direction the discussion 
moves. For every shift in the course of the argu- 
ment let there be verbal sign-posts to point the way. 

(d) Occasional Summaries. To summarize is 



I50 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

to clinch the argument. The virtue of a summary 
or recapitulation lies in this, that it presents the 
argument in miniature, thereby affording the mind 
a final opportunity to grasp and retain its essential 
features. 

4. Style. Argumentation, being an appeal to 
the intellect, requires above everything else to be 
clear. 



XXI. THEOLOGY A BRANCH OF 
KNOWLEDGE 

i. There were two questions, to which I drew 
your attention, Gentlemen, in the beginning of my 
first Discourse, as being of especial importance and 
interest at this time: first, whether it is consistent 
with the idea of University teaching to exclude 
Theology from a place among the sciences which it 
embraces ; next, whether it is consistent with that 
idea to make the useful arts and sciences its direct 
and principal concern, to the neglect of those liberal 
studies and exercises of mind, in which it has here- 
tofore been considered mainly to consist. These 
are the questions which will form the subject of 
what I have to lay before you, and I shall now enter 
upon the former of the two. 

2. It is the fashion just now, as you very well 
know, to erect so-called Universities, without mak- 
ing any provision in them at all for Theological 
chairs. Institutions of this kind exist both here and 
in England. Such a procedure, though defended 
by writers of the generation just passed with much 
plausible argument and not a little wit, seems to 
me an intellectual absurdity; and my reason for 
saying so runs, with whatever abruptness, into the 
151 



152 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

form of a syllogism : — A University, I should lay 
down, by its very name professes to teach universal 
knowledge: Theology is surely a branch of knowl- 
edge: how, then, is it possible for it to profess all 
branches of knowledge and yet to exclude from the 
subjects of its teaching one which, to say the least, 
is as important and as large as any of them ? I do 
not see that either premise of this argument is open 
to exception. 

3. As to the range of University teaching, cer- 
tainly the very name of University is inconsistent 
with restrictions of any kind. Whatever was the 
original reason of the adoption of that term, which 
is unknown, 1 I am only putting on it its popular, 
its recognized sense, when I say that a University 
should teach universal knowledge. That there is 
a real necessity for this universal teaching in the 
highest schools of intellect, I will show by and by ; 
here it is sufficient to say that such universality is 
considered by writers on the subject to be the very 
characteristic of a University, as contrasted with 
other seats of learning. Thus Johnson,* in his Dic- 
tionary, defines it to be " a school where all arts and 
faculties are taught ; " and Mosheim,* writing as 
an historian, says that, before the rise of the Uni- 
versity* of Paris, — for instance, at Padua, or Sala- 
manca, or Cologne, — " the whole circle of sciences 
then known was not taught ; " but that the school 
of Paris, " which exceeded all others in various 
1 In Roman law it means a corporation. 



THEOLOGY A BRANCH OF KNOWLEDGE 1 53 

respects, as well as in the number of teachers and 
students, was the first to embrace all the arts and 
sciences, and therefore first became a University." 

4. If, with other authors, we consider the word 
to be derived from the invitation which is held out 
by a University to students of every kind, the result 
is the same; for, if certain branches of knowledge 
were excluded, those students of course would be 
excluded also, who desired to pursue them. 

5. Is it, then, logically consistent in a seat of 
learning to call itself a University, and to exclude 
Theology from the number of its studies? And 
again, is it wonderful that Catholics, even in the 
view of reason, putting aside faith or religious 
duty, should be dissatisfied with existing institu- 
tions, which profess to be Universities, and refuse 
to teach Theology ; and that they should in conse- 
quence desire to possess seats of learning, which 
are, not only more Christian, but more philosophi- 
cal in their construction, and larger and deeper in 
their provisions ? 

6. But this, of course, is to assume that The- 
ology is a science, and an important one : so I will 
throw my argument into a more exact form. I say, 
then, that if a University be, from the nature of the 
case, a place of instruction, where universal knowl- 
edge is professed, and if in a certain University, so 
called, the subject of Religion is excluded, one of 
two conclusions is inevitable, — either, on the one 
hand, that the province of Religion is very barren 



154 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

of real knowledge, or, on the other hand, that in 
such University one special and important branch 
of knowledge is omitted. I say, the advocate of 
such an institution must say this, or he must say 
that ; he must own either that little or nothing is 
known about the Supreme Being, or that his seat 
of learning calls itself what it is not. This is the 
thesis which I lay down, and on which I shall in- 
sist as the subject of this Discourse. I repeat, such 
a compromise between religious parties, as is in- 
volved in the establishment of a University which 
makes no religious profession, implies that those 
parties severally consider, — not indeed that their 
own respective opinions are trifles in a moral and 
practical point of view, — of course not ; but cer- 
tainly as much as this, that they are not knowledge. 
Did they in their hearts believe that their private 
views of religion, whatever they are, were abso- 
lutely and objectively true, it is inconceivable that 
they would so insult them as to consent to their 
omission in an Institution which is bound, from the 
nature of the case — from its very idea and its 
name — to make a profession of all sorts of knowl- 
edge whatever. 

7. I end then as I began: religious doctrine is 
knowledge. This is the important truth, little en- 
tered into at this day, which I wish that all who 
have honored me with their presence here would 
allow me to beg them to take away with them. I 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 1 55 

am not catching at sharp arguments, but laying 
down grave principles. Religious doctrine is knowl- 
edge, in as full a sense as Newton's* doctrine is 
knowledge. University Teaching without Theology 
is simply unphilosophical. Theology has at least as 
good a right to claim a place there as Astronomy. 
(The Idea of a University, pp. 19-22, 42.) 

Questions and Studies 

This selection comprises the first six paragraphs 
and the concluding paragraph of Discourse II, 
" Theology a Branch of Knowledge," in The Idea 
of a University, part i. 

Careful, explicit, and reiterated statement of the 
question at issue is one of the strong points in New- 
man's argumentative writings. See the instance in 
§ 1. Note, too, the abruptness of the introduction; 
nothing could be more direct. Explain in your own 
words the question Newman is to deal with in Dis- 
course II. What is his answer to the question? 
Where does he state his proposition? Observe the 
rhetorical form given to the conclusion of the 
syllogism in § 2. State the conclusion declaratively. 
What connection is there between Newman's prop- 
osition and this syllogism? Express the syllogism 
in simple terms. What is the author's proof for the 
first premise? What value does the author attach 
to the proof from etymology (§ 3) ? Does it really 
prove that a university should teach universal knowl- 



I56 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

edge? " But this is to assume, etc." (§6). Show 
that § 5 makes the assumption referred to. " I 
end, then, as I began " (§ 7). It is a favorite device 
of Newman's " to end as he began," i.e., to restate 
in conclusion the proposition with which he started. 
What advantage do you see in this device ? Discuss 
the merits of § 7 as an effective conclusion of the 
argument. 



XXII. INTELLECTUAL CULTURE NOT 
MERE KNOWLEDGE 

I. Knowledge then is the indispensable condi- 
tion of expansion of mind, and the instrument of 
attaining to it ; this cannot be denied, it is ever to 
be insisted on ; I begin with it as a first principle ; 
however, the very truth of it carries men too far, 
and confirms to them the notion that it is the whole 
of the matter. A narrow mind is thought to be 
that which contains little knowledge; and an en- 
larged mind, that which holds a great deal; and 
what seems to put the matter beyond dispute is, 
the fact of the great number of studies which are 
pursued in a University, by its very profession. 
Lectures are given on every kind of subject; ex- 
aminations are held; prizes awarded. There are 
moral, metaphysical, physical Professors; Profes- 
sors of languages, of history, of mathematics, of 
experimental science. Lists of questions are pub- 
lished, wonderful for their range and depth, variety 
and difficulty; treatises are written, which carry 
upon their very face the evidence of extensive read- 
ing or multifarious information ; what then is want- 
ing for mental culture to a person of large reading 
and scientific attainments? What is grasp of mind 
iS7 



I58 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

but acquirement? where shall philosophical repose 
be found, but in the consciousness and enjoyment 
of large intellectual possessions? 

2. And yet this notion is, I conceive, a mistake, 
and my present business is to show that it is one, 
and that the end of a Liberal Education is not mere 
knowledge, or knowledge considered in its matter; 
and I shall best attain my object, by actually setting 
down some cases, which will be generally granted 
to be instances of the process of enlightenment or 
enlargement of mind, and others which are not, and 
thus, by the comparison, you will be able to judge 
for yourselves, Gentlemen, whether Knowledge, that 
is, acquirement, is after all the real principle of the 
enlargement, or whether that principle is not rather 
something beyond it. 

3. For instance, 1 let a person, whose experience 
has hitherto been confined to the more calm and un- 
pretending scenery of these islands, whether here or 
in England, go for the first time into parts where 
physical nature puts on her wilder and more awful 
forms, whether at home or abroad, as into moun- 
tainous districts ; or let one, who has ever lived in 
a quiet village, go for the first time to a great me- 
tropolis, — then I suppose he will have a sensation 
which perhaps he never had before. He has a feel- 

1 The pages which follow are taken almost verbatim 
from the author's fourteenth (Oxford) University Ser- 
mon, which, at the time of writing this discourse, he did 
not expect ever to reprint. 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE 1 59 

ing not in addition or increase of former feelings, 
but of something different in its nature. He will 
perhaps be borne forward, and find for a time that 
he has lost his bearings. He has made a certain 
progress, and he has a consciousness of mental en- 
largement ; he does not stand where he did, he has 
a new center, and a range of thoughts to which he 
was before a stranger. 

4. Again, the view of the heavens which the 
telescope opens upon us, if allowed to fill and pos- 
sess the mind, may almost whirl it round and make 
it dizzy. It brings in a flood of ideas, and is rightly 
called an intellectual enlargement, whatever is meant 
by the term. 

5. And so again, the sight of beasts of prey and 
other foreign animals, their strangeness, the origi- 
nality (if I may use the term) of their forms and 
gestures and habits and their variety and independ- 
ence of each other, throw us out of ourselves into 
another creation, and as if under another Creator, 
if I may so express the temptation which may come 
on the mind. We seem to have new faculties, or a 
new exercise for our faculties, by this addition to 
our knowledge; like a prisoner, who, having been 
accustomed to wear manacles or fetters, suddenly 
finds his arms and legs free. 

6. Hence Physical Science generally, in all its 
departments, as bringing before us the exuberant 
riches and resources, yet the orderly course, of the 
Universe, elevates and excites the student, and at 



i60 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

first, I may say, almost takes away his breath, while 
in time it exercises a tranquillizing influence upon 
him. 

7. Again, the study of history is said to enlarge 
and enlighten the mind, and why? because, as I 
conceive, it gives it a power of judging of passing 
events, and of all events, and a conscious superiority 
over them, which before it did not possess. 

8. And in like manner, what is called seeing the 
world, entering into active life, going into society, 
traveling, gaining acquaintance with the various 
classes of the community, coming into contact with 
the principles and modes of thought of various 
parties, interests, and races, their views, aims, habits 
and manners, their religious creeds and forms of 
worship, — gaining experience how various yet how 
alike men are, how low-minded, how bad, how op- 
posed, yet how confident in their opinions; all this 
exerts a perceptible influence upon the mind, which 
it is impossible to mistake, be it good or be it bad, 
and is popularly called enlargement. 

9. And then again, the first time the mind comes 
across the arguments and speculations of unbeliev- 
ers, and feels what a novel light they cast upon 
what he has hitherto accounted sacred; and still 
more, if it gives in to them and embraces them, and 
throws off as so much prejudice what it has hitherto 
held, and, as if waking from a dream, begins to 
realize to its imagination that there is now no such 
thing as law and the transgression of law, that sin 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE l6l 

is a phantom, and punishment a bugbear, that it is 
free to sin, free to enjoy the world and the flesh ; 
and still further, when it does enjoy them, and re- 
flects that it may think and hold just what it will, 
that " the world is all before it where to choose," 
and what system to build up as its own private per- 
suasion; when this torrent of willful thoughts 
rushes over and inundates it, who will deny that the 
fruit of the tree of knowledge, or what the mind 
takes for knowledge, has made it one of the gods, 
with a sense of expansion and elevation, — an in- 
toxication in reality, still, so far as the subjective 
state of the mind goes, an illumination ? Hence the 
fanaticism of individuals or nations, who suddenly 
cast off their Maker. Their eyes are opened ; and, 
like the judgment-stricken* king in the Tragedy, 
they see two suns, and a magic universe, out of 
which they look back upon their former state of faith 
and innocence with a sort of contempt and indigna- 
tion, as if they were then but fools, and the dupes 
of imposture. 

10. On the other hand, Religion has its own en- 
largement, and an enlargement, not of tumult, but 
of peace. It is often remarked of uneducated per- 
sons, who have hitherto thought little of the unseen 
world, that, on their turning to God, looking into 
themselves, regulating their hearts, reforming their 
conduct, and meditating on death and judgment, 
heaven and hell, they seem to become, in point of 
intellect, different beings from what they were. Be- 



1 62 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

fore, they took things as they came, and thought no 
more of one thing than another. But now every 
event has a meaning ; they have their own estimate 
of whatever happens to them ; they are mindful of 
times and seasons, and compare the present with 
the past ; and the world, no longer dull, monoto- 
nous, unprofitable, and hopeless, is a various and 
complicated drama, with parts and an object, and 
awful moral. 

ii. Now from these instances, to which many 
more might be added, it is plain, first, that the com- 
munication of knowledge certainly is either a con- 
dition or the means of that sense of enlargement or 
enlightenment, of which at this day we hear so much 
in certain quarters : this cannot be denied ; but 
next, it is equally plain, that such communication is 
not the whole of the process. The enlargement con- 
sists, not merely in the passive reception into the 
mind of a number of ideas hitherto unknown to it, 
but in the mind's energetic and simultaneous action 
upon and towards and among those new ideas, which 
are rushing in upon it. It is the action of a forma- 
tive power, reducing to order and meaning the mat- 
ter of our acquirements ; it is a making the objects 
of our knowledge subjectively our own, or, to use a 
familiar word, it is a digestion of what we receive, 
into the substance of our previous state of thought ; 
and without this no enlargement is said to follow. 
There is no enlargement, unless there be a compari- 
son of ideas one with another, as they come before 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE 163 

the mind, and a systematizing of them. We feel our 
minds to be growing and expanding then, when we 
not only learn, but refer what we learn to what we 
know already. It is not the mere addition to our 
knowledge that is the illumination ; but the loco- 
motion, the movement onwards, of that mental 
center, to which both what we know, and what we 
are learning, the accumulating mass of our acquire- 
ments, gravitates. And therefore a truly great in- 
tellect, and recognized to be such by the common 
opinion of mankind, such as the intellect of Aris- 
totle,* or of St. Thomas, or of Newton, or of 
Goethe* (I purposely take instances within and 
without the Catholic pale, when I would speak of 
the intellect as such) is one which takes a connected 
view of old and new, past and present, far and near, 
and which has an insight into the influence of all 
these one on another; without which there is no 
whole, and no center. It possesses the knowledge, 
not only of things, but also of their mutual and true 
relations ; knowledge, not merely considered as 
acquirement, but as philosophy. 

12. Accordingly, when this analytical, distribu- 
tive, harmonizing process is away, the mind experi- 
ences no enlargement, and is not reckoned as en- 
lightened or comprehensive whatever it may add to 
its knowledge. For instance, a great memory, as I 
have already said, does not make a philosopher, any 
more than a dictionary can be called a grammar. 
There are men who embrace in their minds a vast 



164 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

multitude of ideas, but with little sensibility about 
their real relations towards each other. These may 
be, antiquarians, annalists, naturalists ; they may be 
learned in the law ; they may be versed in statistics ; 
they are most useful in their own place; I should 
shrink from speaking disrespectfully of them ; still, 
there is nothing in such attainments to guarantee 
the absence of narrowness of mind. If they are 
nothing more than well-read men, or men of in- 
formation, they have not what specially deserves 
the name of culture of mind, or fulfills the type of 
Liberal Education. 

13. In like manner, we sometimes fall in with 
persons who have seen much of the world, and of 
the men who, in their day, have played a conspicu- 
ous part in it, but who generalize nothing, and have 
no observation, in the true sense of the word. They 
abound in information in detail, curious and enter- 
taining, about men and things ; and, having lived 
under the influence of no very clear or settled prin- 
ciples, religious or political, they speak of everyone 
and everything, only as so many phenomena, which 
are complete in themselves, and lead to nothing, not 
discussing them, or teaching any truth, or instruct- 
ing the hearer, but simply talking. No one would 
say that these persons, well informed as they are, 
had attained to any great culture of intellect or to 
philosophy. 

14. The case is the same still more strikingly 
where the persons in question are beyond dispute 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE 165 

men of inferior powers and deficient education. 
Perhaps they have been much in foreign countries, 
and they receive, in a passive, otiose, unfruitful way, 
the various facts which are forced upon them there. 
Seafaring men, for example, range from one end 
of the earth to the other; but the multiplicity of 
external objects, which they have encountered, forms 
no symmetrical and consistent picture upon their 
imagination; they see the tapestry of human life, 
as it were on the wrong side, and it tells no story. 
They sleep, and they rise up, and they find them- 
selves, now in Europe, now in Asia ; they see visions 
of great cities and wild regions ; they are in the 
marts of commerce, or amid the islands of the 
South; they gaze on'Pompey's* Pillar, or on the 
Andes ; and nothing which meets them carries them 
forward or backward, to any idea beyond itself. 
Nothing has a drift or relation ; nothing has a his- 
tory or a promise. Everything stands by itself, and 
comes and goes in its turn, like the shifting scenes 
of a show, which leave the spectator where he was. 
Perhaps you are near such a man on a particular 
occasion, and expect him to be shocked or perplexed 
at something which occurs ; but one thing is much 
the same to him as another, or, if he is perplexed, 
it is as not knowing what to say, whether it is right 
to admire, or to ridicule, or to disapprove, while 
conscious that some expression of opinion is ex- 
pected from him ; for in fact he has no standard of 
judgment at all, and no landmarks to guide him to 



l66 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

a conclusion. Such is mere acquisition, and, I re- 
peat, no one would dream of calling it philosophy. 

15. Instances, such as these confirm, by the con- 
trast, the conclusion I have already drawn from 
those which preceded them. That only is true en- 
largement of mind which is the power of viewing 
many things at once as one whole, of referring them 
severally to their true place in the universal system, 
of understanding their respective values, and deter- 
mining their mutual dependence. Thus is that form 
of Universal Knowledge, of which I have on a for- 
mer occasion spoken, set up in the individual intel- 
lect, and constitutes its perfection. Possessed of 
this real illumination, the mind never views any part 
of the extended subject-matter of Knowledge with- 
out recollecting that it is but a part, or without the 
associations which spring from this recollection. It 
makes everything in some sort lead to everything 
else ; it would communicate the image of the whole 
to every separate portion, till that whole becomes in 
imagination like a spirit, everywhere pervading and 
penetrating its component parts, and giving them 
one definite meaning. Just as our bodily organs, 
when mentioned, recall their function in the body, 
as the word " creation " suggests the Creator, and 
" subjects " a sovereign, so, in the mind of the Phi- 
losopher, as we are abstractedly conceiving of him, 
the elements of the physical and moral world, sci- 
ences, arts, pursuits, ranks, offices, events, opinions, 
individualities, are all viewed as one, with corre- 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE 1 67 

lative functions, and as gradually by successive com- 
binations converging, one and all, to the true center. 
t6. To have even a portion of this illuminative 
reason and true philosophy is the highest state to 
which nature can aspire, in the way of intellect ; 
it puts the mind above the influences of chance and 
necessity, above anxiety, suspense, unsettlement, 
and superstition, which is the lot of the many. 
Men, whose minds are possessed with some one 
object, take exaggerated views of its importance, are 
feverish in the pursuit of it, make it the measure of 
things which are utterly foreign to it, and are startled 
and despond if it happens to fail them. They are 
ever in alarm or in transport. Those, on the other 
hand, who have no object or principle whatever to 
hold by, lose their way, every step they take. They 
are thrown out, and do not know what to think or 
say, at every fresh juncture; they have no view of 
persons, or occurrences, or facts, which come sud- 
denly upon them, and they hang upon the opinion 
of others for want of internal resources. But the 
intellect, which has been disciplined to the perfection 
of its powers, which knows, and thinks while it 
knows, which has learned to leaven the dense mass 
of facts and events with the elastic force of reason, 
such an intellect cannot be partial, cannot be exclu- 
sive, cannot be impetuous, cannot be at a loss, can- 
not but be patient, collected, and majestically calm, 
because it discerns the end in every beginning, the 
origin in every end, the law in every interruption, 



l68 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

the limit in each delay ; because it ever knows where 
it stands, and how its path lies from one point to 
another. It is the TeTpdycovos* of the Peripatetic,* 
and has the " nil* admirari " of the Stoic : 

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 
Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum 
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. 

There are men who, when in difficulties, originate 
at the moment vast ideas of dazzling projects ; 
who, under the influence of excitement, are able to 
cast a light, almost as if from inspiration, on a sub- 
ject or course of action which comes before them; 
who have a sudden presence of mind equal to any 
emergency, rising with the occasion, and an un- 
daunted magnanimous bearing, and an energy and 
keenness which is but made intense by opposition. 
This is genius, this is heroism ; it is the exhibition 
of a natural gift, which no culture can teach, at 
which no Institution can aim ; here, on the contrary, 
we are concerned, not with mere nature, but with 
training and teaching. That perfection of Intel- 
lect, which is the result of Education, and its beau 
Meal, to be imparted to individuals in their respec- 
tive measures, is the clear, calm, accurate vision and 
comprehension of all things, as far as the finite 
mind can embrace them, each in its place, and with 
its own characteristics upon it. It is almost pro- 
phetic from its knowledge of human nature ; it has 
almost supernatural charity from its freedom from 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 169 

littleness and prejudice; it has almost the repose 
of faith, because nothing can startle it ; it has almost 
the beauty and harmony of heavenly contemplation, 
so intimate is it with the eternal order of things and 
the music of the spheres. (The Idea of a Univer- 
sity, pp. 129-137.) 

Questions and Studies 

The thesis of Newman's discourse, " Knowledge 
Viewed in Relation to Learning," in The Idea of 
a University, pp. 124-150, is that the function of 
a university (or of a liberal education) is to impart 
enlargement of mind or intellectual culture. " It 
educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, 
to reach out towards truth and to grasp it." 

Explain by aid of the context the meaning of the 
term "knowledge" in § 1. What is the difference 
in the popular view between " mental narrowness " 
and "mental enlargement" (§ 1)? State the 
author's proposition. What is his method of proof? 
Note his appeal to common consent as to the true 
meaning of a certain term. What view of mental 
enlargement does the author insist upon? Collate 
the various terms used by him as equivalents for 
true mental enlightenment and false mental enlight- 
enment. The passage is concerned with the true 
meaning of the term " mental enlargement " or its 
equivalent " intellectual culture." Why not, then, 
call the passage an exposition ? 



I70 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

What two inferences does the author draw from 
the instances cited in §§ 3-10? Which of the two 
is more nearly related to his proposition? Para- 
phrase briefly §§ 12, 13, and 14. What is the point 
or argumentative value of each of the given in- 
stances? How do these instances bear on the 
author's proposition ? Outline briefly, the argu- 
ment, starting with the proposition and grouping 
under it the proofs or reasons. 



XXIII. THE SOCIAL STATE OF CATH- 
OLIC COUNTRIES NO PREJUDICE TO 
THE SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH 

i. I considered, in the preceding Lecture, the 
objection brought in this day against the Catholic 
Church, from the state of the countries which be- 
long to her. It is urged, that they are so far behind 
the rest of the world in the arts and comforts of 
life, in power of political combination, in civil 
economy, and the social virtues, in a word, in all 
that tends to make this world pleasant, and the loss 
of it painful, that their religion cannot come from 
above. I answered that, before the argument could 
be made to tell against us, proof must be furnished, 
not only that the fact was as stated (and I think it 
should be very closely examined), but especially 
that there is that essential connection in the nature 
of things between true religion and temporal pros- 
perity, which the objection took for granted. That 
there is a natural and ordinary connection between 
them no one would deny ; but it is one thing to say 
that prosperity ought to follow from religion, quite 
another to say that it must follow from it. Thus, 
health, for instance, may be expected from a habit 
of regular exercise ; but no one would positively 
171 



1/2 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

deny the fact that exercise had been taken in a par- 
ticular case, merely because the patient gave signs 
of an infirm and sickly state of the body. And, 
indeed, there may be particular and most wise rea- 
sons in the scheme of Divine Providence, whatever 
be the legitimate tendency of the Catholic Church, 
for its being left, from time to time, without any 
striking manifestations of its beneficial action upon 
the temporal interests of mankind, without the in- 
fluence of wealth, learning, civil talent, or political 
sagacity ; nay, as in the days of St. Cyprian* and 
St. Augustine,* with the actual reproach of im- 
pairing the material resources and the social great- 
ness of the nations which embrace it : viz., in order 
to remind the Church, and to teach the world, that 
she needs no temporal recommendations who has 
a heavenly Protector, but can make her way (as 
they say) against wind and tide. 

2. This, then, was the subject I selected for my 
foregoing Lecture, and I said there were three rea- 
sons why the world is no fit judge of the work, or 
the kind of work, really done by the Church in any 
age : — first, because the world's measure of good 
and scope of action are so different from those of 
the Church, that it judges as unfairly and as nar- 
rowly of the fruits of Catholicism and their value, 
as the Caliph* Omar might judge of the use and the 
influence of literature, or rather indefinitely more 
so. The Church, though she embraces all conceiv- 
able virtues in her teaching, and every kind of good, 



SOCIAL STATE OF CATHOLIC COUNTRIES 1 73 

temporal as well as spiritual, in her exertions, does 
not survey them from the same point of view, or 
classify them in the same order as the world. She 
makes secondary what the world considers indis- 
pensable; she places first what the world does not 
even recognize, or undervalues, or dislikes, or thinks 
impossible; and not being able, taking mankind as 
it is found, to do everything, she is often obliged to 
give up altogether what she thinks of great indeed, 
but of only secondary moment, in a particular age 
or a particular country, instead of effecting at all 
risks that extirpation of social evils, which, in the 
world's eyes, is so necessary, that it thinks nothing 
really is done till it is secured. Her base of opera- 
tions, from the difficulties of the season or the pe- 
riod, is sometimes not broad enough to enable her 
to advance against crime as well as against sin, 
and to destroy barbarism as well as irreligion. The 
world, in consequence, thinks, that because she has 
not done the world's work, she has not fulfilled her 
Master's purpose ; and imputes to her the enormity 
of having put eternity before time. 

3. And next, let it be observed that she has 
undertaken the more difficult work ; it is difficult, 
certainly, to enlighten the savage, to make him 
peaceable, orderly, and self-denying; to persuade 
him to dress like a European, to make him prefer a 
feather-bed to the heather or the cave, and to ap- 
preciate the comforts of the fireside and the tea- 
table : but it is indefinitely more difficult, even with 



174 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

the supernatural powers given to the Church, to 
make the most refined, accomplished, amiable of 
men, chaste or humble ; to bring, not only his out- 
ward actions, but his thoughts, imaginations, and 
aims, into conformity to a law which is naturally 
distasteful to him. It is not wonderful, then, if the 
Church does not so much in the Church's way, as 
the world does in the world's way. The world has 
nature as an ally, and the Church, on the whole, 
and as things are, has nature as an enemy. 

4. And lastly, as I have implied, her best fruit 
is necessarily secret : she fights with the heart of 
man ; her perpetual conflict is against the pride, the 
impurity, the covetousness, the envy, the cruelty, 
which never gets so far as to come to light ; which 
she succeeds in strangling in its birth. From the 
nature of the case, she ever will do more in repress- 
ing evil than in creating good ; moreover, virtue 
and sanctity, even when realized, are also in great 
measure secret gifts known only to God and good 
Angels ; for these, then, and other reasons, the 
powers and triumphs of the Church must be hid 
from the world, unless the doors of the Confessional 
could be flung open, and its whispers carried abroad 
on the voices of the winds. Nor indeed would even 
such disclosures suffice for the due comparison of 
the Church with religions which aim at no personal 
self-government, and disown on principle examina- 
tion of conscience and confession of sin ; but in 
order to our being able to do justice to that com- 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 175 

parison, we must wait for the Day when the books 
shall be opened and the secrets of hearts shall be 
disclosed. For all these reasons, then, from the pe- 
culiarity, and the arduousness, and the secrecy of 
the mission intrusted to the Church, it comes to 
pass that the world is led, at particular periods, to 
think very slightly of the Church's influence on so- 
ciety, and vastly to prefer its own methods and its 
own achievements. 

5. So much I have already suggested towards 
the consideration of a subject, to which justice could 
not really be done except in a very lengthened dis- 
quisition, and by an examination of matters which 
lie beyond the range of these Lectures. If then 
to-day I make a second remark upon it, I do so 
only with the object I have kept before me all along, 
of smoothing the way into the Catholic Church for 
those who are already very near the gate ; who have 
reasons enough, taken by themselves, for believing 
her claims, but are perplexed and stopped by the 
counter-arguments which are urged against her, or 
at least against their joining her. {Anglican Diffi- 
culties, vol. i, pp. 261-265.) 

Questions and Studies 

This passage occurs at the beginning of Lecture 
IX, " The Religious State of Catholic Countries no 
Prejudice to the Sanctity of the Church," in Angli- 
can Difficulties, vol. i, pp. 261-295. 



I76 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

Note that the passage summarizes the whole of 
Lecture VIII, " Social State of Catholic Countries 
no Prejudice to the Sanctity of the Church." What 
is the purpose of the summary (§ 5) ? Is the argu- 
mentation direct or indirect (i.e., refutation) ? 
State in your own words the objection refuted. 
Frame a syllogism embodying it. What is the 
author's proposition? How does he prove it? 
Study the use in the passage of clear-cut proposi- 
tion ; explicit transition ; summary. What sen- 
tence of § 4 contains a summary of the discussion? 
Cf. a similar passage in Burke's Speech on Concili- 
ation with the Colonies, § 42, " Then, Sir, from 
these six capital sources, etc." 

Make a brief of the argument, including proposi- 
tion and proofs, the latter hinged to the former by 
" for." What typical qualities of a good argumen- 
tative style are exemplified? 



XXIV. STATES AND CONSTITUTIONS 

i. The proposition I have undertaken to main- 
tain is this : — That the British Constitution is made 
for a state of peace, and not for a state of war ; and 
that war tries it in the same way, to use a homely 
illustration, that it tries a spoon to use it for a knife, 
or a scythe or hay-fork to make it do the work of a 
spade. I expressed myself thus generally, in order 
to give to those who should do me the honor of 
reading me the most expeditious insight into the 
view which I wished to set before them. But, if I 
must speak accurately, my meaning is this, — that, 
whereas a Nation has two aspects, internal and ex- 
ternal, one as regards its own members, and one as 
regards foreigners, and whereas its government has 
two duties, one towards its subjects, and one towards 
its allies or enemies, the British State is great in its 
home department, which is its primary object, for- 
eign affairs being its secondary; while France or 
Russia, Prussia or Austria, contemplates in the first 
place foreign affairs, and is great in their manage- 
ment, and makes the home department only its sec- 
ond object. And further, that, if England be great 
abroad, as she is, it is not so much the State, as the 
People or Nation, which is the cause of her being 
177 



I78 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

great, and that not by means but in spite of the 
Constitution, or, if by means of it in any measure, 
clumsily so and circuitously ; on the other hand, 
that, if foreign powers are ever great in the manage- 
ment of their own people, and make men of them, 
this they do in spite of their polity, and rather by 
the accidental qualifications of the individual ruler; 
pr if by their polity, still with inconvenience and 
effort. Other explanations I may add to the above 
as I proceed, but this is sufficient for the present. 

2. Now I hope you will have patience with me, if 
I begin by setting down what I mean by a State, 
and by a constitution. 

3. First of all, it is plain that everyone has a 
power of his own to act this way or that, as he 
pleases. And, as not one or two, but everyone has 
it, it is equally plain that, if all exercised it to the 
full, at least the stronger part of mankind would 
always be in conflict with each other, and no one 
would enjoy the benefit of it ; so that it is the inter- 
est of everyone to give up some portion of his birth- 
freedom in this or that direction, in order to secure 
more freedom on the whole ; exchanging a freedom 
which is now large and now narrow, according as 
the accidents of his conflicts with others are more or 
less favorable to himself, for a certain definite range 
of freedom prescribed and guaranteed by settled 
engagements or laws. In other words, Society is 
necessary for the well-being of human nature. The 
result, aimed at and effected by these mutual ar- 



STATES AND CONSTITUTIONS 179 

rangements, is called a State or Standing; that is, 
in contrast with the appearance presented by a 
people before and apart from such arrangements, 
which is not a standing, but a chronic condition of 
commotion and disorder. 

4. And next, as this State or settlement of a 
people is brought about by mutual arrangements, 
that is, by laws or rules, there is need, from the na- 
ture of the case, of some power over and above the 
People itself to maintain and enforce them. This 
living guardian of the laws is called the Govern- 
ment, and a governing power is thus involved in the 
very notion of Society. Let the Government be 
suspended, and at once the State is threatened with 
dissolution, which at best is only a matter of time. 

5. A lively illustration in point is furnished us 
by a classical historian. When the great Assyrian 
Empire broke up, a time of anarchy succeeded ; and, 
little as its late subjects liked its sway, they liked its 
absence less. The historian proceeds : " There was 
a wise man among the Medes, called Deioces.* This 
Deioces, aspiring to be tyrant, did thus. He was 
already a man of reputation in his own country, and 
he now, more than ever, practiced justice. The 
Medes, accordingly, in his neighborhood, seeing his 
ways, made him their umpire in disputes. He, on 
the other hand, having empire in his eye, was up- 
right and just. As he proceeded thus, the dwellers 
in other towns, who had suffered from unjust de- 
cisions, were glad to go to him and to plead their 



l80 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

causes, till at length they went to no one else. 
Deioces now had the matter in his own hands. Ac- 
cordingly he would no longer proceed to the judg- 
ment seat, for it was not worth while, he said, to 
neglect his private affairs for the sake of the affairs 
of others. When rapine and lawlessness returned, 
his friends said, ' We must appoint a King over 
us ; ' and then they debated who it should be, and 
Deioces was praised by everyone. So they made 
him their King; and he, upon this, bade them to 
build him a house worthy of his kingly power, and 
protect him with guards ; and the Medes did so." 

6. Now I have quoted this passage from history, 
because it carries us a step further in our investiga- 
tion. It is for the good of the many that the one 
man, Deioces, is set up ; but who is to keep him in 
his proper work? He puts down all little tyrants, 
but what is to hinder his becoming a greater tyrant 
than them all ? This was actually the case ; first the 
Assyrian tyranny, then anarchy, then the tyranny 
of Deioces. Thus the unfortunate masses oscillate 
between two opposite evils, — that of having no 
governor, and that of having too much of one ; and 
which is the lesser of the two? This was the di- 
lemma which beset the Horse* in the fable. He was 
in feud with the Stag, by whose horns he was 
driven from his pasture. The Man promised him 
an easy victory, if he would let him mount him. 
On his assenting, the Man bridled him, and vaulted 
on him, and pursued and killed his enemy; but, 



STATES AND CONSTITUTIONS l8l 

this done, he would not get off him. Now then the 
Horse was even worse off than before, because he 
had a master to serve, instead of a foe to combat. 

7. Here then is the problem : the social state is 
necessary for man, but it seems to contain in itself 
the elements of its own undoing. It requires a 
power to enforce the laws, and to rule the unruly ; 
but what law is to control that power, and to rule 
the ruler ? According to the common adage, " Ouis* 
custodiet ipsos custodes ? " Who is to hinder the 
governor dispensing with the law in his own favor ? 
History shows us that this problem is as ordinary 
as it is perplexing. 

8. The expedient, by which the state is kept in 
statu* and its ruler is ruled, is called its Constitu- 
tion; and this has next to be explained. Now a 
Constitution really is not a mere code of laws, as 
is plain at once; for the very problem is how to 
confine power within the law, and in order to the 
maintenance of law. The ruling power can, and 
may, overturn law and law-makers, as Cromwell* 
did, by the sword .with which he protects them. 
Acts of Parliament, Magna* Charta, the Bill* of 
Rights, the Reform* Bill, none of these are the Brit- 
ish Constitution. What then is conveyed in that 
word ? I would answer as follows : 

9. As individuals have characters of their own, 
so have races. Most men have their strong and 
their weak points, and points neither good nor bad, 
but idiosyncratic. And so of races : one is brave, 



l82 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

and sensitive of its honor; another romantic; an- 
other industrious, or long headed, or religious. One 
is barbarous, another civilized. Moreover, growing 
out of these varieties, or idiosyncrasies, and corre- 
sponding to them, will be found in these several 
races, and proper to each, a certain assemblage of 
beliefs, convictions, rules, usages, traditions, prov- 
erbs, and principles ; some political, some social, 
some moral; and these tending to some definite 
form of government, and modus vivendi* or pol- 
ity, as their natural scope. And this being the case, 
when a given race has that polity which is intended 
for it by nature, it is in the same state of repose 
and contentment which an individual enjoys who 
has the food, or the comforts, the stimulants, seda- 
tives, or restoratives, which are suited to his dia- 
thesis* and his need. This then is the Constitution 
of a State: securing, as it does, the national unity 
by at once strengthening and controlling its gov- 
erning power. It is something more than law ; it 
is the embodiment of special ideas, ideas perhaps 
which have been held by a race for ages, which are 
of immemorial usage, which have fixed themselves 
in its innermost heart, which are in its eyes sacred 
to it, and have practically the force of eternal truths, 
whether they be such or not. These ideas are some- 
times trivial, and at first sight, even absurd : some- 
times they are superstitious, sometimes they are 
great or beautiful ; but to those to whom they be- 
long they are first principles, watch-words, common 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 183 

property, natural ties, a cause to fight for, an occa- 
sion of self-sacrifice. They are the expressions of 
some or other sentiment, — of loyalty, of order, of 
duty, of honor, of faith, of justice, of glory. They 
are the creative and conservative influences of So- 
ciety; they erect Nations into States, and invest 
States with Constitutions. They inspire and sway, 
as well as restrain, the ruler of a people, for he him- 
self is but one of that people to which they belong. 
'( Who 's to Blame in Discussions and Arguments, 
pp. 3 1 1-3 16.) 

Questions and Studies 

Over the pen-name Catholic us Newman in 1855 
addressed to the editor of The Catholic Standard a 
series of letters on the subject of the Crimean war. 
The present selection is Letter II of the series, which 
bears the caption, "Who's to Blame?" The 
author in Letter I states his proposition thus: 
" Still, we cannot alter facts ; and, if the British 
Constitution is admirably adapted for peace, but 
not for war, which is the proposition I shall support, 
and which seems dawning on the public mind, there 
is a lesson contained in that circumstance which 
demands our attention." 

Note that the author begins with a restatement 
of his proposition. Lawyers have said of Newman 
that he would have written a " good opinion." Cer- 
tainly he never loses sight of the point he starts out 
to prove. " But, if I must speak accurately, etc." 



184 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

(§1). An instance of the " explication " of a prop- 
osition. The author develops the meaning of his 
proposition without attempting as yet to prove it. 
In § 3 the author's concern seems to be to prove the 
necessity of " society." How does this help him to 
expound the term " state " ? Indicate the steps by 
which the author passes from the exposition of the 
term " state " to the exposition of the term " consti- 
tution." Paraphrase briefly the author's exposition 
of these terms. Is the exposition clear? Discuss 
the value in argumentation of a clear understanding 
of terms. 

Letter II does not take the author into his argu- 
ment proper ; still, it illustrates finely certain initial 
steps in argumentation. 



XXV. "ALL WHO TAKE PART WITH 
THE APOSTLE ARE ON THE WIN- 
NING SIDE" 

i. Reflections such as these would be decisive 
even with the boldest and most capable minds, but 
for one consideration. In the midst of our difficul- 
ties I have one ground of hope, just one stay, but, 
as I think, a sufficient one, which serves me in the 
stead of all other argument whatever, which hardens 
me against criticism, which supports me if I begin 
to despond, and to which I ever come round, when 
the question of the possible and the expedient is 
brought into discussion. It is the decision of the 
Holy See ; St. Peter has spoken, it is he who has 
enjoined that which seems to us so unpromising. 
He has spoken, and has a claim on us to trust him. 
He is no recluse, no solitary student, no dreamer 
about the past, no doter upon the dead and gone, 
no projector of the visionary. He for eighteen hun- 
dred years has lived in the world; he has seen all 
fortunes, he has encountered all adversaries, he has 
shaped himself for all emergencies. If ever there 
was a power on earth who had an eye for the times, 
who has confined himself to the practicable, and 
185 



1 86 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

has been happy in his anticipations, whose words 
have been facts, and whose commands prophecies, 
such is he in the history of ages, who sits from 
generation to generation in the Chair of the Apos- 
tles, as the Vicar of Christ, and the Doctor of His 
Church. 

2. These are not the words of rhetoric, Gentle- 
men, but of history. All who take part with the 
Apostle are on the winning side. He has long since 
given warrants for the confidence which he claims. 
From the first he has looked through the wide world, 
of which he has the burden ; and, according to the 
need of the day, and the inspirations of his Lord, 
he has set himself now to one thing, now to another ; 
but to all in season, and to nothing in vain. He 
came first upon an age of refinement and luxury 
like our own, and, in spite of the persecutor, fertile 
in the resources of his cruelty, he soon gathered, 
out of all classes of society, the slave, the soldier, 
the high-born lady, and sophist, materials enough 
to form a people to his Master's honor. The sav- 
age* hordes came down in torrents from the north, 
and Peter* went out to meet them, and by his very 
eye he sobered them, and backed them in their full 
career. They turned aside and flooded the whole 
earth, but only to be more surely civilized by him, 
and to be* made ten times more his children even 
than the older populations which they had over- 
whelmed. Lawless kings arose, sagacious as the 
Roman, passionate as the Hun,* yet in him they 



" ALL WHO TAKE PART WITH THE APOSTLE " 187 

found their match, and were shattered, and he lived 
on. The gates of the earth were opened to the east 
and west, and men poured out to take possession; 
but he went with them by his missionaries to China, 
to Mexico, carried along by zeal and charity, as far 
as those children of men were led by enterprise, cov- 
etousness, or ambition. Has he failed in his suc- 
cesses up to this hour ? Did he, in our fathers' day, 
fail in his struggle with Joseph* of Germany and 
his confederates, with Napoleon, a greater name, and 
his dependent kings that, though in another kind of 
fight, he should fail in ours ? What gray hairs are 
on the head of Judah,* whose* youth is renewed 
like the eagle's, whose feet are like the feet of harts, 
and underneath the Everlasting arms? 

3. In the first centuries of the Church all this 
practical sagacity of Holy Church was mere matter 
of faith, but every age, as it has come, has confirmed 
faith by actual sight ; and shame on us, if, with the 
accumulated testimony of eighteen centuries, our 
eyes are too gross to see those victories which the 
Saints have ever seen by anticipation. Least of all 
can we, the Catholics of islands which have in the 
cultivation and diffusion of Knowledge heretofore 
been so singularly united under the auspices of the 
Apostolic See, least of all can we be the men to dis- 
trust its wisdom and to predict its failure, when 
it sends us on a similar mission now. I cannot for- 
get that, at a time when Celt and Saxon were alike 
savage, it was the See of Peter that gave both of 



1 88 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

them, first faith, then civilization ; and then again 
bound them together in one by the seal of a joint 
commission to convert and illuminate in their turn 
the pagan continent. I cannot forget how it was 
from Rome that the glorious St. Patrick* was sent 
to Ireland, and did a work so great that he could 
not have a successor in it, the sanctity and learning 
and zeal and charity which followed on his death 
being but the result of the one impulse which he 
gave. I cannot forget how, in no long time, under 
the fostering breath of the Vicar of Christ, a country 
of heathen superstitions became the very wonder and 
asylum of all people, — the wonder by reason of 
its knowledge, sacred and profane, and the asylum 
of religion, literature and science, when chased 
away from the continent by the barbarian invaders. 
I recollect its hospitality, freely accorded to the pil- 
grim ; its volumes munificently presented to the 
foreign student ; and the prayers, the blessings, the 
holy rites, the solemn chants, which sanctified the 
while both giver and receiver. 

4. Nor can I forget either, how my own England 
had meanwhile become the solicitude of the same 
unwearied eye: how Augustine was sent to us by 
Gregory ;* how he fainted in the way at the tidings 
of our fierceness, and, but for the Pope, would have 
shrunk as from an impossible expedition; how he 
was forced on " in* fear and in much trembling," 
until he had achieved the conquest of the island to 
Christ. Nor, again, how it came to pass that, when 



" ALL WHO TAKE PART WITH THE APOSTLE " 189 

Augustine died and his work slackened, another* 
Pope, unwearied still, sent three saints from Rome, 
to ennoble and refine the people Augustine had con- 
verted. Three holy men set out for England to- 
gether, of different nations : Theodore,* an Asiatic 
Greek, from Tarsus ; Adrian,* an African ; Ben- 
nett* alone a Saxon, for Peter knows no distinction 
of races in his ecumenical work. They came with 
theology and science in their train ; with relics, with 
pictures, with manuscripts of the Holy Fathers and 
the Greek classics ; and Theodore and Adrian 
founded schools, secular and monastic, all over Eng- 
land, while Bennett brought to the north the large 
library he had collected in foreign parts, and, with 
plans and ornamental work from France, erected a 
church of stone, under the invocation of St. Peter, 
after the Roman fashion, " which," says the his- 
torian, 1 " he most affected. * I call to mind how 
St. Wilfrid,* St. John* of Beverley, St. Bede, and 
other saintly men, carried on the good work in the 
following generations, and how from that time forth 
the two islands, England and Ireland, in a dark and 
dreary age, were the two lights of Christendom, 
and had no claims on each other, and no thought of 
self, save in the interchange of kind offices and the 
rivalry of love. 

5. O memorable time, when St. Aidan* and the 
Irish monks went up to Lindisfarne* and Melrose,* 
and taught the Saxon youth, and when a St. Cuth- 
1 Cressy. 



190 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

bert* and a St. Eata* repaid their charitable toil! 
O blessed days of peace and confidence, when the 
Celtic Mailduf* penetrated to Malmesbury* in the 
south, which has inherited his name, and founded 
there the famous school which gave birth to the 
great St. Aldhelm !* O precious seal and testimony 
of Gospel unity, when, as Aldhelm in turn tells us, 
the English went to Ireland " numerous as bees ; " 
when the Saxon St. Egbert* and St. Willibrod,* 
preachers to the heathen Frisons,* made the voyage 
to Ireland to prepare themselves for their work; 
and when from Ireland went forth to Germany the 
two noble Ewalds,* Saxons also, to earn the crown 
of martyrdom ! Such a period, indeed, so rich in 
grace, in peace, in love, and in good works, could 
only last for a season ; but even when the light was 
to pass away from theni, the sister islands were des- 
tined, not to forfeit, but to transmit it together. The 
time came when the neighboring continental country 
was in turn to hold the mission which they had exer- 
cised so long and well ; and when to it they made 
over their honorable office, faithful to the alliance 
of two hundred years, they made it a joint act. 
Alcuin* was the pupil both of the English and of 
the Irish schools ; and when Charlemagne* would 
revive science and letters in his own France, it was 
Alcuin, the representative both of the Saxon and the 
Celt, who was the chief of those who went forth to 
supply the need of the great Emperor. Such was 
the foundation of the School of Paris from which, 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES I9I 

in course of centuries, sprang the famous Univer- 
sity, the glory of the middle ages. 

6. The past never returns ; the course of events, 
old in its texture, is ever new in its coloring and fash- 
ion. England and Ireland are not what they once 
were, but Rome is where it was, and St. Peter is the 
same : his zeal, his charity, his mission, his gifts 
are all the same. He of old made the two islands 
one by giving them joint work of teaching; and 
now surely he is giving us a like mission, and we 
shall become one again, while we zealously and lov- 
ingly fulfill it. (The Idea of a University, pp. 
13-18.) 

Questions and Studies 

An illustration of Newman's fondness for histori- 
cal proof. The passage, while taking on the whole 
the form of narration or description, is really argu- 
mentative in scope. The author has a proposition, 
and he proves it by an appeal to history. This ten- 
dency to rest a contention on individual facts or 
precedents is characteristic of Newman, being one 
phase of what may be called his typical literary 
method, to wit, his constant use of the concrete. 

Indicate the topic of § I. How is it amplified? 
Note the careful unity of §§ 2, 3, and 4. State 
their topic-sentences. What is the author's propo- 
sition? How does he prove it? Outline the argu- 
ment briefly. Where does it end? 

What is the rhetorical value of the apostrophes in 



192 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

§ 5 ? Discuss the imaginative element in the style ; 
the emotional. What rhetorical devices help to 
the force of the style? Would you call the style 
eloquent, and for what reasons? 

Selections xxi-xxv illustrate numerous methods and 
devices of effective argumentation. Thus, a clear state- 
ment of the question at issue (xxi), the proposition clearly 
stated (xxiv, xxv), careful explanation of terms (xxiv), 
refutation (xxiii), the syllogism (xxi), proof by illustra- 
tion (xxn), proof by historical appeal (xxv), explicit tran- 
sitions (xxn, xxiii), summary (xxi, xxm). 



E. PERSUASION 

1. Definition. Persuasion is a form of discourse 
zvhich seeks to influence or move the human will. 
To persuade another is to induce him to act one 
way or another or to refrain from acting at all. 
Argumentation stops with conviction. It has no 
further aim than to make others accept the truth of 
the proposition it undertakes to prove. Conviction 
may result in action, but with the resulting action, 
argumentation as such has no concern. It is the 
business of persuasion, on the other hand, to influ- 
ence the wills of others and cause them to issue into 
action. Some text-books treat persuasion not as a 
distinct form of discourse, but as a phase of argu- 
mentation, calling it persuasive or impassioned ar- 
gumentation or else oratory. However, as oratory 
in all its phases connotes an attempt, direct or in- 
direct, to influence the human will, it is best to con- 
sider it as distinct from argumentation, which, of 
itself, seeks to influence the intellect and not the will. 

2. Methods. Persuasion attains or tries to at- 
tain its object in three ways: 

(a) By Appeal to the Intellect, i.e., by conviction 
193 



194 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

(rational appeal). To secure his hearers' perse- 
verance in some line of conduct, the preacher tries 
to make them see clearly that it is their duty to 
persevere. Conviction, when possible, and not im- 
aginative or emotional excitement, is the surest nat- 
ural guarantee of perseverance in right conduct. 

(b) By Appeal to the Emotions (emotional ap- 
peal). The passions of a man, when worked upon, 
readily express themselves in external action. Hence 
the appeal to passion has always had its recognized 
place among the resources of oratory. Imagination 
and emotion standing in close dependence on one 
another, the latter is often stimulated by stimulat- 
ing the former, as in the highly-wrought word- 
pictures of the impassioned orator. 

(c) By Appeal to the Senses. A method seldom 
practicable. Antony, with Caesar's dead body to 
point to, could rouse the Roman mob to avenge the 
Dictator's death. 

3. Style. Force, the emotional, and elegance, 
the esthetic quality of style, combine to render lan- 
guage persuasive, i.e., calculated to make men act 
as we wish them to act. All the charms of color 
and sound that language may be made to take on 
are legitimate resources for the one who uses per- 
suasion as a literary type. 



XXVI. AN APPEAL TO THE LAITY 

i. This, I would say, Brothers* of the Oratory, 
not only to you, but, if I had a right to do so, to 
the Catholics of England generally. Let each stand 
on his own ground; let each approve himself in 
his own neighborhood ; if each portion is defended, 
the whole is secured. Take care of the pence and 
the pounds will take care of themselves. Let the 
London press alone ; do not appeal to it ; do not 
expostulate with it, do not flatter it; care not for 
popular opinion, cultivate local. And then if 
troubled times come on, and the enemy rages, and 
his many voices go forth from one center all through 
England, threatening and reviling us, and mutter- 
ing in his cowardly way, about brickbats, bludgeons, 
and lighted brands, why in that case the Birming- 
ham people will say, " Catholics are, doubtless, an 
infamous set, and not to be trusted, for the Times* 
says so, and Exeter Hall,* and the Prime Minis- 
ter,* and the Bishops of the Establishment ;* and 
such good authorities cannot be wrong; but some- 
how an exception must certainly be made for the 
Catholics of Birmingham. They are not like the 
rest ; they are indeed a shocking set at Manchester, 
Preston,* Blackburn,* and Liverpool ; but, how- 
i95 



I96 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

ever you account for it, they are respectable men 
here. Priests in general are perfect monsters ; but 
here they are certainly unblemished in their lives, 
and take great pains with their people. Bishops 
are tyrants, and, as Maria* Monk says, cut-throats, 
always excepting the Bishop of Birmingham, who 
affects no state or pomp, is simple and unassuming, 
and always in his work." And in like manner, the 
Manchester people will say, " Oh, certainly, Pop- 
ery* is horrible, and must be kept down. Still, let 
us give the devil his due, they are a remarkably ex- 
cellent body of men here, and we will take care no 
one does them any harm. It is very different at 
Birmingham; there they will have a Bishop, and 
that makes all the difference ; he is a. Wolsey* all 
over; and the priests, too, in Birmingham are at 
least one in twelve infidels. We do not recollect 
who ascertained this, but it was some most respect- 
able man, who was far too conscientious and too 
charitable to slander anyone." And thus, my 
Brothers, the charges against Catholics will become 
a sort of Hunt-the-slipper,* everywhere and no- 
where, and will end in " sound* and fury, signify- 
ing nothing." 

2. Such is that defensive system, which I think 
is especially the duty of Catholics at this moment. 
You are attacked on many sides ; do not look about 
for friends on the right hand or the left. Trust 
neither Assyria nor Egypt; trust no body of men. 
Fall back on yourselves, and trust none but your- 



AN APPEAL TO THE LAITY I97 

selves. I do not mean you must not be grate- 
ful to individuals who are generous to you, but 
beware of parties; all parties are your enemies; 
beware of alliances. You are your own best, and 
sure, and sufficient friends ; no one can really 
hurt you but yourselves ; no one can succor you but 
yourselves. Be content to have your conscience 
clear, and your God on your side. 

3. Your strength lies in your God and your con- 
science; therefore it lies not in your number. It 
lies not in your number any more than in intrigue, 
or combination, or worldly wisdom. God saves 
whether by many or by few ; you are to aim at 
showing forth His light, at diffusing " the sweet* 
odor of His knowledge in every place : " numbers 
would not secure this. On the contrary, the more 
you grew, the more you might be thrown back into 
yourselves, by the increased animosity and jealousy 
of your enemies. You are enabled in some measure 
to mix with them while you are few; you might 
be thrown back upon yourselves, when you became 
many. The line of demarcation might be more 
strictly observed; there might be less intercourse 
and less knowledge. It would be a terrible state of 
things to be growing in material power, and grow- 
ing too in a compulsory exclusiveness. Grow you 
must ; I know it ; you cannot help it ; it is your 
destiny ; it is the necessity of the Catholic name, it 
is the prerogative of the Apostolic heritage ; but a 
material extension without a corresponding moral 



198 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

manifestation, it is almost awful to anticipate; aw- 
ful, if there should be the sun of justice within you, 
with so little power to cast the illumination of its 
rays upon the multitudes without. On the other 
hand, even if you did not grow, you might be able 
to dispense on all sides of you the royal light of 
Truth, and exert an august moral influence upon 
the world. This is what I want; I do not want 
growth, except of course for the sake of the souls 
of those who are the increment ; but I want you to 
rouse yourselves. I would aim primarily at organi- 
zation, edification, cultivation of mind, growth of 
the reason. It is a moral force, not a material, which 
will vindicate your profession, and will secure your 
triumph. It is not giants who do most. How small 
was the Holy Land ! yet it subdued the world. How 
poor a spot was Attica! yet it has formed the in- 
tellect. Moses was one, Elias was one, David 
was one, Paul* was one, Athanasius* was one, 
Leo* was one. Grace ever works by few ; it is the 
keen vision, the intense conviction, the indomitable 
resolve of the few, it is the blood of the martyr, it is 
the prayer of the saint, it is the heroic deed, it is 
the momentary crisis, it is the concentrated energy 
of a word or a look, which is the instrument of 
heaven. Fear not, little flock, for He is mighty 
who is in the midst of you, and will do for you great 
things. 

4. As troubles and trials circle round you, He 
will give you what you want at present — "a 



AN APPEAL TO THE LAITY I99 

mouth,* and wisdom, which all your adversaries 
shall not be able to resist and gainsay." " There* is 
a time for silence, and a time to speak ; " the time 
for speaking is come. What I desiderate in Catho- 
lics is the gift of bringing out what their religion is ; 
it is one of those " better* gifts " of which the 
Apostle bids you be " zealous." You must not hide 
your talent in a napkin, or your light under a 
bushel. I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in 
speech, not disputatious, but men who know their 
religion, who enter into it, who know just where 
they stand, who know what they hold, and what they 
do not, who know their creed so well that they can 
give an account of it, who know so much of history 
that they can defend it. I want an intelligent, well- 
instructed laity; I am not denying you are such 
already; but I mean to be severe, and, as some 
would say, exorbitant in my demands, I wish you 
to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason, 
to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth, 
to learn to view things as they are, to understand 
how faith and reason stand to each other, what are 
the bases and principles of Catholicism, and where 
lie the main inconsistencies and absurdities of the 
Protestant theory. I have no apprehension you will 
be worse Catholics for familiarity with these sub- 
jects, provided you cherish a vivid sense of God 
above, and keep in mind that you have souls to be 
judged and to be saved. In all times the laity have 
been the measure of the Catholic spirit ; they saved 



20O PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

the Irish Church three centuries ago, and they be- 
trayed the Church of England. Our rulers were 
true, our people were cowards. You ought to be 
able to bring out what you feel and what you mean, 
as well as to feel and mean it ; to expose to the 
comprehension of others the fictions and fallacies 
of your opponents ; and to explain the charges 
brought against the Church, to the satisfaction, not, 
indeed of bigots, but of men of sense, of whatever 
cast of opinion. And one immediate effect of your 
being able to do all this will be your gaining that 
proper confidence in self which is so necessary for 
you. You will then not even have the temptation 
to rely on others, to court political parties or par- 
ticular men ; they will rather have to court you. 
You will no longer be dispirited or irritated (if such 
is at present the case), at finding difficulties in your 
way, in being called names, in not being believed, 
in being treated with injustice. You will fall back 
upon yourselves ; you will be calm, you will be 
patient. Ignorance is the root of all littleness ; he 
who can realize the law of moral conflicts, and the 
incoherence of falsehood, and the issue of perplexi- 
ties, and the end of all things, and the Presence of 
the Judge, becomes, from the very necessity of the 
case, philosophical, long-suffering, and magnani- 
mous. (Lectures on the Present Position of Catho- 
lics in England, ix, pp. 386-391.) 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 201 

Questions and Studies 

Newman's Lectures on the Present Position of 
Catholics in England were delivered in Birmingham 
in 1852 as a rebuke to the outburst of bigotry oc- 
casioned by the action of Pius IX in restoring the 
Catholic hierarchy in England. 

Note the irony in § 1. Mark, also, the sparing 
use of connectives in the entire passage. Is there 
a reason for this trait of style? Mark the direct 
and earnest tone. What rhetorical aids help to it? 
What advantages result from the use of the first 
person? Study the last third of § 1 for various 
rhetorical effects. " Moses was one, etc." A happy 
instance of the suggestive power of names. Do you 
catch the significance of these names, as being those 
of men who achieved a great work single-handed? 

What substantially is the " defensive system " in- 
culcated by Newman in § 1 ? Does § 2 help to ex- 
plain it? Note the argument in § 3. What is the 
proposition and how is it proved? 

Write a short critical estimate of the style of the 
passage and of its fitness for the author's purpose. 



XXVII. REMEMBRANCE OF PAST 
MERCIES 

I. Well were it for us, if we had the character 
of mind, instanced in Jacob, and enjoined on his 
descendants; the temper of dependence upon God's 
providence, and thankfulness under it, and careful 
memory of all He has done for us. It would be well 
if we were in the habit of looking at all we have, 
as God's gift, undeservedly given, and day by day 
continued to us solely by His mercy. He gave; 
He may take away. He gave us all we have, — life, 
health, strength, reason, enjoyment, the light of con- 
science ; whatever we have good and holy within us ; 
whatever faith we have; whatever of a renewed 
will ; whatever love towards Him ; whatever power 
over ourselves ; whatever prospect of heaven. He 
gave us relatives, friends, education, training, 
knowledge, the Bible, the Church. All comes from 
Him. He gave ; He may take away. Did He take 
away, we should be called on to follow Job's* pat- 
tern, and be resigned : " The Lord gave, and the 
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the 
Lord." While He continues His blessings, we 
should follow David* and Jacob, by living in con- 
stant praise and thanksgiving, and in offering up to 
Him of His own. 



REMEMBRANCE OF PAST MERCIES 203 

2. We are not our own, any more than what we 
possess is our own. We did not make ourselves; 
we cannot be supreme over ourselves. We cannot 
be our own masters. We are God's property by 
creation, by redemption, by regeneration. He has a 
triple claim upon us. Is it not our happiness thus 
to view the matter? Is it any happiness, or any 
comfort to consider that we are our own? It may 
be thought so by the young and prosperous. These 
may think it a great thing to have everything, as 
they suppose their own Way, — to depend on no 
one, — to have to think of nothing out of sight, — 
to be without the irksomeness of continual acknowl- 
edgment, continual prayer, continual reference of 
what they do to the will of another. But as time 
goes on, they, as all men, will find that independence 
was not made for man — that it is an unnatural 
state — may do for a while, but will not carry us 
on safely to the end. No; we are creatures, and, 
as being such, we have two duties, to be resigned 
and to be thankful. 

3. Let us then view God's providences towards 
us more religiously than we have hitherto done. 
Let us try to gain a truer view of what we are, and 
where we are, in His kingdom. Let us humbly and 
reverently attempt to trace His guiding hand in 
the years which we have hitherto lived. Let us 
thankfully commemorate the many mercies He has 
vouchsafed to us in time past, the many sins He has 
not remembered, the many dangers He has averted, 



204 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

the many prayers He has answered, the many mis- 
takes He has corrected, the many warnings, the 
many lessons, the much light, the abounding com- 
fort which He has from time to time given. Let us 
dwell upon times and seasons, times of trouble, times 
of joy, times of refreshment. How did He cherish us 
as children ! How did He guide us in that danger- 
ous time when the mind began to think for itself, 
and the heart to open to the world ! How did He 
with His sweet discipline restrain our passions, mor- 
tify our hopes, calm our fears, enliven our heavi- 
nesses, sweeten our desolateness, and strengthen our 
infirmities ! How did He gently guide us towards 
the straight gate ; how did He allure us along His 
everlasting way, in spite of its strictness, in spite 
of its loneliness, in spite of the dim twilight in which 
it lay ! He has been all things to us. He has been, 
as He was to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our 
shield, and great reward, promising and performing, 
day by day, " Hitherto* hath He helped us." " The* 
Lord hath been mindful of us, and He hath blessed 
us." He has not made us for nought; He has 
brought us thus far, in order to bring us further, 
in order to bring us on to the end. (Parochial and 
Plain Sermons, vol. v, sermon 6.) 

Questions and Studies 

The patriarch Jacob's habit of thankfulness to 
God for past favors is enlarged upon in the body 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 205 

of the sermon, the particular lesson of which is 
stated in the first sentence of § i. How much of 
persuasion or appeal is contained in the concluding 
paragraphs? To what object or end is the appeal 
directed? Is the appeal rational or emotional? If 
rational, what motives for action are alleged ? What 
part in the effect intended is played by entreaty ? by 
interrogation? by exclamation? Is the style typi- 
cally oratorical? Is it an appropriate style for 
sacred oratory? What differences do you note be- 
tween the present selection and Selections XXVIII 
and XXIX with respect to style? 



XXVIII. GOD'S WILL THE END OF LIFE 

i. The end of a thing is the trial. It was our 
Lord's rejoicing, in His last solemn hour, that He 
had done the work for which He was sent. " I* 
have glorified Thee on earth," He says in His 
prayer. " I have finished the work which Thou 
gavest Me to do ; I have manifested Thy Name to 
the men whom Thou hast given me out of the 
world." It was St. Paul's consolation also ; " I* 
have fought the good fight, I have finished the 
course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord 
shall render to me in that day, the just Judge." 
Alas, alas ! how different will be our view of things 
when we come to die, or when we have passed into 
eternity, from the dreams and pretenses with which 
we beguile ourselves now ! What will Babel do for 
us then ? will it rescue our souls from the purgatory 
or the hell, to which it sends us? If we were cre- 
ated, it was that we might serve God; if we have 
His gifts, it is that we may glorify Him ; if we 
have a conscience, it is that we may obey it; if we 
have the prospect of heaven, it is that we may keep 
it before us ; if we have light, that we may follow 
it ; if we have grace, that we may save ourselves 
206 



GOD S WILL THE END OF LIFE 207 

by means of it. Alas, alas, for those who die with- 
out fulfilling their mission ! who were called to be 
holy, and lived in sin ; who were called to worship 
Christ, and who plunged into this giddy and unbe- 
lieving world; who were called to fight, and who 
remained idle; who were called to be Catholics, 
and remained in the religion of their birth ! Alas 
for those, who have had gifts and talents, and have 
not used, or misused, or abused them ; who have 
had wealth, and have spent it on themselves ; or 
who have had abilities, and have advocated what 
was sin, or ridiculed what was true, or scattered 
doubts against what was sacred ; or who have had 
leisure, and have wasted it on wicked companions, 
or evil books, or foolish amusements! Alas for 
those of whom the best that can be said is, that they 
are harmless and naturally blameless, while they 
never have attempted to cleanse their hearts or live 
in God's sight ! 

2. The world goes on from age to age, but the 
holy' Angels and blessed Saints are always crying 
alas, alas, and woe, woe, over the loss of vocations, 
and the disappointments of hopes, and the scorn 
of God's love, and the ruin of souls. One genera- 
tion succeeds another, and whenever they look down 
upon earth from their golden thrones, they see 
scarcely anything but a multitude of guardian spir- 
its, downcast and sad, each following his own 
charge, in anxiety, or in terror, or in despair, vainly 
endeavoring to shield him from the enemy, and 



208 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

failing because he will not be shielded. Times 
come and go, and man will not believe, that that is 
to be which is not yet, or that what is now only con- 
tinues for a season, and is not eternity. The end 
is the trial ; the world passes ; it is but a pageant 
and a scene, the lofty palace crumbles, the busy city 
is mute, the ships of Tarshish* have sped away. On 
the heart and flesh death comes ; the veil is break- 
ing. Departing soul, how hast thou used thy tal- 
ents, thy opportunities, the light poured around 
thee, the warning given thee, the grace inspired into 
thee? O my Lord and Saviour, support me in that 
hour in the strong arms of Thy Sacraments, and by 
the fresh fragrance of Thy consolations. Let the 
absolving words be said over me, and the holy oil 
sign and seal me, and Thy own Body be my food, 
and thy Blood my sprinkling ; and let sweet Mary 
breathe on me, and my Angel whisper peace to me, 
and my glorious Saints, and my own dear Father 
smile on me; that in them all, and through them 
all, I may receive the gift of perseverance, and die, 
as I desire to live, in Thy faith, in Thy Church, in 
Thy service, and in thy love. ( God's Will the End 
of Life in Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congre- 
gations, pp. 87-91.) 



Questions and Studies 

Is there appeal in §§ 1 and 2? Is it direct or in- 
direct? How does indirect appeal differ from di- 



QUESTIONS AND STUDIES 20O, 

rect? Is the appeal in the present case effective 
(i.e., from the standpoint of form) ? What is the 
preacher's definite object in the sermon and how 
does he aim at it? What is to be said of the final 
prayer as a device of sacred oratory? 

What impression does the style make upon you? 
Is it direct? animated? popular? convincing? De- 
termine what qualities of style result from the sen- 
tence-forms; from rhetorical devices (parallel struc- 
ture, interrogation, exclamation, etc.). Study § I 
for balanced sentences. What is their effect ? Char- 
acterize the style of § 2. May the style of the pas- 
sage be considered an ideal pulpit style? If so, for 
what reasons ? 



XXIX. THE ASSUMPTION 

i. And therefore she died in private. It became 
Him, who died for the world, to die in the world's 
sight; it became the great Sacrifice to be lifted up 
on high, as a light that could not be hid. But she, 
the lily of Eden, who had always dwelt out of the 
sight of man, fittingly did she die in the garden's 
shade, and amid the sweet flowers in which she 
had lived. Her departure made no noise in the 
world. The Church went about her common duties, 
preaching, converting, suffering; there were perse- 
cutions, there was fleeing from place to place, there 
were martyrs, there were triumphs ; at length the 
rumor spread through Christendom that Mary was 
no longer upon earth. Pilgrims went to and fro ; 
they sought for her relics, but these were not ; did 
she die at Ephesus?* or did she die at Jerusalem? 
accounts varied ; but her tomb could not be pointed 
out, or, if it was found, it was open ; and instead of 
her pure and fragrant body, there was a growth of 
lilies from the earth which she had touched. So 
inquirers went home marveling, and waiting for 
further light. And then the tradition came, wafted 
westward on the aromatic breeze, how that when the 



THE ASSUMPTION 211 

time of her dissolution was at hand, and her soul 
was to pass in triumph before the judgment-seat of 
her Son, the Apostles were suddenly gathered to- 
gether in one place, even, in the Holy City, to bear 
part in the joyful ceremonial ; how that they buried 
her with fitting rites ; how that the third day, when 
they came to the tomb, they found it empty, and 
angelic choirs with their glad voices were heard 
singing day and night the glories of their risen 
Queen. But, however we feel towards the details 
of this history (nor is there anything in it which 
will be unwelcome or difficult to piety), so much 
cannot be doubted, from the consent of the whole 
Catholic world and the revelations made to holy 
souls, that, as is befitting, she is, soul and body, with 
her Son and God in heaven, and that we have to 
celebrate, not only her death, but her Assumption. 
2. And now, my dear brethren, what is befitting 
in us, if all that I have been telling you is befitting 
in Mary? If the Mother of Emmanuel* ought to 
be the first of creatures in sanctity and in beauty ; 
if it became her to be free from all sin from the 
very first, and from the moment she received her 
first grace to begin to merit more ; and if such as 
was her beginning, such was her end, her conception 
immaculate and her death an assumption ; if she 
died, but revived, and is exalted on high ; what is 
befitting in the children of such a Mother but an 
imitation, in their measure, of her devotion, her 
meekness, her simplicity, her modesty, and her 



212 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

sweetness ? Her glories are not only for the sake of 
her Son, they are for our sake, also. Let us copy 
her faith, who received God's message by the Angel 
without a doubt ; her patience, who endured St: Jo- 
seph's surprise without a word ; her obedience, who 
went up to Bethlehem in the winter and bore our 
Lord in a stable ; her meditative spirit, who pon- 
dered in her heart what she saw and heard about 
Him ; her fortitude, whose heart the sword went 
through ; her self-surrender, who gave Him up 
during His ministry and consented to His death. 

3. Above all let us imitate her purity, who, rather 
than relinquish her virginity, chose to lose Him for 
a Son. O my dear children, young men and 'young 
women, what need have you of the intercession of 
the Virgin-Mother, of her help, of her pattern, in 
this respect! What shall bring you forward in the 
narrow way, if you live in the world, but the thought 
and the patronage of Mary! What shall seal your 
senses, what shall tranquillize your heart, when 
sights and sounds of danger are around you, but 
Mary? What shall give you patience and endur- 
ance, when you are wearied out with the length of 
the conflict with evil, with the unceasing necessity 
of precautions, with the irksomeness of observing 
them, with the tediousness of their repetition, with 
the strain upon your mind, with your forlorn and 
cheerless condition, but a loving communion with 
her? She will comfort you in your discourage- 
ments, solace you in your fatigue, raise you after 



THE ASSUMPTION 213 

your falls, reward you for your successes. She will 
show you her Son, your God and your all. When 
your spirit within you is excited, or relaxed, or de- 
pressed, when it loses its balance, when it is restless 
and wayward, when it is sick of what it has, and 
hankers after what it has not, when your eye is so- 
licited with evil, and your mortal frame trembles 
under the shadow of the Tempter, what will bring 
you to yourselves, to peace and to health, but the 
cool breath of the Immaculate and the fragrance of 
the Rose* of Saron ? It is the boast of the Catholic 
Religion that it has the gift of making the young 
heart chaste; and why is this, but that it gives us 
Jesus for our food, and Mary for our nursing 
Mother? Fulfill this boast in yourselves; prove to 
the world that you are following no false teaching, 
vindicate the glory of your Mother Mary, whom the 
world blasphemes, in the very face of the world, by 
the simplicity of your own deportment, and the 
sanctity of your words and deeds. Go to her for 
the royal heart of innocence. She is the beautiful 
gift of God, which outshines the fascinations of a 
bad world, and which no one ever sought in sincer- 
ity and was disappointed. " She* is more precious 
than all riches; and all things that are desired are 
not to be compared with her. Her ways are beauti- 
ful ways, and her paths are peace. She is a tree of 
life to them that lay hold .on her ; and he that shall 
retain her is blessed. As a vine hath she brought 
forth a pleasant odor, and her flowers are the fruit 



214 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

of honor and virtue. Her spirit is sweeter than 
honey, and her heritage than the honeycomb. They 
that eat her shall yet be hungry, and they that drink 
her shall still thirst. Whoso hearkeneth to her, 
shall not be confounded, and they that work by her, 
shall not sin." (Fitness of the Glories of Mary in 
Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, pp. 
280-282. ) 

Questions and Studies 

The structure of the paragraphs deserves atten- 
tion. Note in each instance the initial sentence and 
its relation to the rest of the paragraph. " Fittingly 
did she die, etc." Contrast for effect with the un- 
inverted order of the same words. Study § 1 for 
prose cadences and general rhythmic effects. 

"... definiteness of object is in various ways 
the one virtue of the preacher ; — and this means 
that he should set out with the intention of con- 
veying to others some spiritual benefit." (Newman 
on " University Preaching " in The Idea of a Uni- 
versity, p. 412.) What is the preacher's definite ob- 
ject in this instance? Note the recapitulation in 
§ 2, " If the Mother of Emmanuel ought to be, etc." 
What advantage do you see in it? Discuss the 
author's use of entreaty ; of exclamation ; of in- 
terrogation. " The object of Persuasion (in preach- 
ing) is the absolute determination of the will to do 
something conducive to salvation." (Feeney: 
Manual of Sacred Rhetoric, p. 263.) What is the 



THE PARTING OF FRIENDS 21 5 

" something conducive to salvation " in the present 
case? The passage under consideration is the con- 
clusion of a sermon. As such does it satisfy all 
the demands of a conclusion in practical sacred 
oratory ? 

XXX. THE PARTING OF FRIENDS 

And, O my brethren, O kind and affectionate 
hearts, O loving friends, should you know anyone 
whose lot it has been, by writing or by word of 
mouth, in some degree to help you thus to act ; if 
he has ever told you what you know about your- 
selves, or what you did not know ; has read to you 
your wants or feelings, and comforted you by the 
very reading; has made you feel that there was a 
higher life than this daily one, and a brighter world 
than that you see; or encouraged you, or sobered 
you, or opened a way to the inquiring, or soothed 
the perplexed ; if what he has said or done has ever 
made you take interest in him, and feel well inclined 
towards him ; remember such a one in time to come, 
though you hear him not, and pray for him, that in 
all things he may know God's will, and at all times 
he may be ready to fulfill it. (Sermons Bearing on 
Subjects of the Day, xxvi, p. 409.) 



2l6 PROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 



Questions and Studies 

The simple, earnest pathos of the appeal and the 
unadorned beauty of the language in which it is 
made cannot fail to impress the student. To what 
is the charm of the passage due? Newman can 
secure the most striking effects by the simplest 
means. On what rhetorical aids, if any, does he 
rely in the present instance? 



TOPICAL ANALYSES 
A. NARRATION 



I. Elements: 


(i) Time 




(2) Place 




(3) Plot 




(4) Character (dialogue) 


I. Structure: 


(1) Unity — relevance of details 




(2) Coherence — arrangement 




order 




(3) Emphasis — arrangement 



for 

for 
effect 

(a) A beginning to interest 

(b) Suspense 

(c) Climax 

III. Style: Vividness (picturesqueness, animation, 
movement, force) the typical quality 

B. DESCRIPTION 

I. Problems: (i) Point of view 

(2) Fundamental image 

(3) Effective selection of details 
II. Structure: (i) Unity — relevance of details 

(2) Coherence — arrangement for 

order 

(3) Emphasis — arrangement for 

effect 
III. Aim: Vividness of Portrayal. This is secured by: 

(1) Concrete details 

(2) Suggestive details 

217 



2l8 TROSE TYPES IN NEWMAN 

(3) Imagery, tone-color, specific 
terms, and all the picturing 
resources of language 

IV. Types: (i) Description by inventory 

(2) Description by impression 

(3) Description by suggestion 

V. Style : Vividness the typical quality 

C. EXPOSITION 

I. Typical Processes: (i) Definition 

(a) Scientific 

(b) Rhetorical or de- 

scriptive (ampli- 
fying aids, e.g., 
illustration, an- 
tithesis or con- 
trast, obverse 
statement, com- 
parison, repeti- 
tion, etc.) 
(2) Division 

(a) Scientific 

(b) Rhetorical 

II. Types: (i) Exposition in method (the essay) 
(2) Exposition in scope only 

(a) Expository description 

(b) Expository narration (the 

fable, "generalized nar- 
rative," fiction with a 
purpose, interpretative 
history or biography) 
III. Style: Clearness the typical quality 



TOPICAL ANALYSES 2IO. 

D. ARGUMENTATION 

I. Methods: (i) Argumentation direct and indi- 
rect (refutation) 

(2) Argumentation deductive and in- 

ductive 

(3) Argumentation a priori and a 

posteriori 

(4) The syllogism, enthymeme, so- 

rites, dilemma, etc. 
II. Aids: (i) A definite proposition 

(2) A clear-cut plan or division of 

material 

(3) Explicit transitions 

(4) Emphatic summaries 
III. Style: Clearness the typical quality 

E. PERSUASION 

I. Methods: (i) Appeal to the intellect 

(2) Appeal to the imagination and 

emotions 

(3) Appeal to the senses 

II. Style: A combination of force and elegance the 
typical quality 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



Adrian, St. An African monk 
who accompanied St. Theo- 
dore of Tarsus into England. 
Succeeded St. Benedict Bis- 
cop as Abbot of the Abbey of 
St. Peter and Paul in Canter- 
bury. Died 710. 

.3Sgean (Sea). An arm of the 
Mediterranean lying between 
Greece on the west and Asi- 
atic Turkey on the east. 

jEneas. Son of Anchises and 
Venus and mythical ancestor 
of the Roman people. Hero 
of Vergil's /Eneid. 

Agellius. See Callista. 

Aidan, St. Irish monk of Iona; 
Bishop of Lindisfarne and 
apostle of Northumbria. Died 
651. 

Alcuin (7357-804). Anglo- 
Saxon monk at the court of 
Charlemagne, whom he aided 
in promoting the great intel- 
lectual revival that marked 
the Emperor's reign. 

Aldhelm, St. First bishop of 
Sherburne in England. Said 
to have been of the royal 
family of Wessex. Died 7og. 

Alexandria. An ancient city 
and seaport of Egypt on the 
Mediterranean Sea. Named 
for Alexander the Great, its 
founder. 

Alfred (849-901). Surnamed 
the Great. King of Wessex 
and overlord of England. 

Ambrose, St. (3407-397). Bish- 
op of Milan and Father of 



the Church. He baptized St. 
Augustine. 

Amiens. A town on the river 
Somme in northeastern 
France. 

ancient style of art, etc. (p. 87). 
The Gothic, revived in Eng- 
land in the first half of the 
nineteenth century by A. W. 
Pugin. 

Animuccia, Giovanni. A mu- 
sician and composer of re- 
pute, musical director at St. 
Peter's in Rome and bosom 
friend of St. Philip Neri. 

another pope, etc. (p. 189). Pope 
St. Vitalian. 

Anthony, St. (2517-356?). 
Egyptian abbot, generally 
regarded as the founder of 
Christian monasticism. 

Aquitaine. Formerly a political 
division of central and south- 
ern France. The Aquitania 
of Csesar's Commentaries. 

Arabs (p. 71). The Kaaba or 
sacred stone of the Arabs is 
preserved in the Great 
Mosque at Mecca. 

Arcadia. A geographical divi- 
sion of ancient Greece, noted 
for the simple, rustic manners 
of its inhabitants. 

Aristotle (384-322 B. C). Greek 
philosopher, founder of the 
Peripatetic School. 

Armagh. A town and county 
in the Province of Ulster, 
Ireland. The Archbishop of 
Armagh is Primate of the 
Irish Church. 

asbestos. A mineral substance 



222 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



unaffected by fire. Shrouds 
made of asbestos cloth were 
in use among the Romans. 

Astarte. A goddess of the 
Syrians and Phoenicians, iden- 
tified with the Aphrodite of 
the Greeks and the Venus of 
the Romans. 

Athanasius, St. (296-373). Pri- 
mate of Egypt and Father of 
the Church. A resolute de- 
fender of orthodox Christi- 
anity against the heresy of 
Arius, who denied the divin- 
ity of Christ. 

Atlas. A high mountain in 
northern Africa. 

atrium. In a Roman house, a 
large-sized and centrally lo- 
cated room opening from the 
vestibule. In the houses of 
the poor and the middle 
classes, it served as kitchen 
and sitting-room; in those of 
the wealthy, as a reception- 
room for visiting friends and 
clients. 

Attica. Geographical and politi- 
cal division of ancient Greece. 
Its principal city, Athens, 
" the eye of Greece," was a 
brilliant center of Greek lit- 
erature and art. 

augurs. Roman soothsayers or 
diviners, who made predic- 
tions from the movements 
and chirpings of birds. 

Augustine, St. (p. 87). Bene- 
dictine monk sent by Pope 
Gregory the Great in 597 to 
convert the Anglo-Saxons, a 
commission which he dis- 
charged with signal success. 
Died Archbishop of Canter- 
bury in 604. 

Augustine, St. (354-43°) (P-.i72). 
Son of St. Monica and Bishop 
of Hippo in Africa. Con- 
spicuous among the Fathers 
of the Church for his influ- 
ence on the development of 
Catholic theology. 



B 



Balaam. A sorcerer, forced by 
divine intervention to proph- 
esy good things of the Isra- 
elites after he had been hired 
by Balac, King of Moab, to 
curse them. Numbers xxii- 
xxiv. 

Babylon. An ancient city on the 
river Euphrates, of frequent 
mention in scriptural narra- 
tive; capital of the great 
Oriental monarchy of Baby- 
Ionia. The story of the 
draining of the bed of the 
Euphrates at the capture of 
the city by the Persians under 
Cyrus (538 b. c.) is told in 
Herodotus. The Tower of 
Babel mentioned in the Old 
Testament (Genesis xi.), is 
associated by tradition with 
the site of ancient Babylon. 

bacchanal. A devotee of Bac- 
chus; a noisy, drunken reve- 
ler. 

Bacchus. The Greek Dionysos, 
son of Jupiter, god of wine 
and good cheer. His head, 
surmounting a term or short 
pillar, was a common artistic 
device. 

Bagradas. The modern Mej- 
erda, a river of Algeria and 
Tunis, having its source in 
the Atlas. 

Bajazet I (1347-1403). Sultan 
of the Turks. Defeated by 
Timor or Tamerlane at An- 
cyra (402) and held prisoner 
by him until death. 

Banchor or Bangor. A town, 
twelve miles east of Belfast, 
in County Down, Ireland; 
seat of a famous monastery 
destroyed by the Danes. 

Bardeney. A town in Lincoln- 
shire, northeastern England. 

Baronius, Cardinal (1538-1607). 
Italian Oratorian, author of 
the Annates Ecclesiastici (Ec- 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



223 



clesiastical Annals), a monu- 
mental work on Church 
history. 

Basil, St. (329-379). Surnamed 
the Great. Bishop of Caesarea 
in Palestine and Father of the 
Church. 

Basilidians. Followers of Basil- 
ides, a second-century teacher 
of the Gnostic heresy. 

Baths of Alexander. Built in 
Rome by the Emperor Alex- 
ander Severus. 

beau ideal. A model or ideal of 
excellence. 

Beccafico. The garden warbler, 
a small bird highly prized by 
the Italians as a delicacy of 
the table. 

Bede, St. (6727-735). Com- 
monly styled Venerable. Ben- 
edictine monk of the Abbey 
of Jarrow in England; author 
of a famous Ecclesiastical 
History of England. 

Benedict, St. (480-543). Foun- 
der at Monte Cassino in 
Italy of the Benedictine 
Order of monks, the parent 
stem of Western monasti- 
cism. 

Bennett or Benedict Biscop, St. 
Founder of the abbeys of 
Wearmouth and Jarrow in 
England. Died 690. 

Bernard, St. (1091-1140). 
Abbot of Clairvaux, a Cis- 
tercian monastery near 
Langres in France. Famous 
as a preacher, theologian 
and hymn-writer. He op- 
posed the errors of Abelard 
and preached the Second 
Crusade. 

" better gifts " (p. 199). I Cor- 
inthians xii. 31. 

Bill of Rights. A celebrated 
English constitutional docu- 
ment defining the extent of 
the King's prerogative and of 
the powers of Parliament, 
which body thenceforth be- 



came the controlling element 
in the government of Eng- 
land (1689). 

Blackburn. A city in Lanca- 
shire, England. 

Bochart, Samuel (1599-1667). 
French orientalist of author- 
ity. 

Bordeaux. A large and im- 
portant town at the mouth 
of the river Garonne in south- 
western France. 

Borromeo, Cardinal Federigo. 
Archbishop of Milan and 
intimate friend of St. Philip 
Neri. 

box (p. no). A small, snug 
country-house occupied tem- 
porarily, e.g., for hunting. 

Boyne. A river in the east of 
Ireland, flowing into the Irish 
Sea. Scene of the battle of 
the Boyne (July, 1690). 

Britain. The Roman province 
Britannia, the modern Eng- 
land, Scotland, and Wales. 

Brittany. A district in north- 
western France; home of the 
Bretons. 

bronze of iEgina. The Greek 
sculptor, Polycletus, made 
use in his art of the fine bronze 
manufactured in zEgina, an 
island of Greece not many 
miles from Athens. 

Brothers of the Oratory (p. 195). 
A lay association or confra- 
ternity affiliated to the Bir- 
mingham Congregation of the 
Oratory. Newman addressed 
his Lectures on the Present 
Position of Catholics in Eng- 
land to its members. 

Burgundy. The name succes- 
sively of a kingdom, duke- 
dom, and province in south- 
eastern France. 

" but what are these, etc." 
(p. 39). St. John vi. ix. 

Byron, Lord (1788-1824). 

Though belonging by his 
work to the Romantic school 



224 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



of English poets, he defended 
the artificial poetry of Pope 
against the attacks of cer- 
tain critics (p. no). 



Cadiz. The ancient Gades, a 
city and seaport of Phoenician 
origin in southwestern Spain. 

Caesar, Caius Julius (ioo B. C- 
44). The most commanding 
figure in Roman history. He 
overthrew the republic and 
founded the empire. 

Cajetan, St. (1480-1547). A 
native of Thienna in Italy. 
Founder of the religious order 
known as the Theatines. 

Caliph Omar (p. 172). Ma- 
homet's second successor, 
who, at the capture of Alex- 
andria in Egypt, is said to 
have given orders for the 
burning of the famous Alex- 
andrian library on the ground 
that the Koran was the only 
book necessary for man. _ A 
story of doubtful authenticity. 

Callista. The incidents of 
Newman's Callista are placed 
in Northern Africa, at the 
outbreak of the Decian per- 
secution in the middle of the 
third century. Callista, a 
Greek pagan girl and skilful 
image-maker, is the central 
figure. Agellius and Juba, 
their mother Gurta, a sor- 
ceress, their uncle Jucun- 
dus, a staunch pagan, and 
St. Cyprian, Bishop of Car- 
thage, enter into the action. 
Agellius, a Christian, seeks 
the hand of Callista in mar- 
riage, but fails of success. 
Some time after St. Cyprian 
falls into the clutches of a 
murderous mob, but is res- 
cued by Juba, who, though 
once a catechumen, has never 
practiced Christianity. For 



saving the Bishop's life, he 
is punished by his mother, 
Gurta, who by a strange exer- 
cise of her power renders him 
a demoniac; in the end, how- 
ever, he recovers his senses 
and dies a Christian. Cal- 
lista, though not yet con- 
verted, is thrown into prison 
on the charge of being a 
Christian. Here she is vis- 
ited by St. Cyprian, who 
admits her into the Church. 
Her torture and death for the 
faith follow shortly. 

Cambray. A town in north- 
eastern France (French Flan- 
ders), noted for its fine linen 
fabrics called cambrics. 

Campania. A district in south- 
ern Italy of great fertility of 
soil. 

Campus Martius. " The Field 
of Mars"; in ancient Rome, 
a low, semicircular plain, in- 
closed by hills and contain- 
ing many splendid buildings. 

Capitol. The Capitoline Hill, 
the most interesting historic- 
ally of the seven hills of Rome. 
Site of the arx or citadel and 
of the temple of Jupiter 
Capitolinus. 

Caracalla, Marcus Aurelius An- 
toninus (188-217). Roman 
Emperor. He extended the 
rights of citizenship to all the 
free inhabitants of the Em- 
pire in order to be able to tax 
their estates. 

carmen. Latin for " song "or 
" hymn." The Carmen Sa;- 
culare (Secular Hymn) was 
sung at the celebration of the 
Secular Games. 

Carthage. A city of Phoenician 
origin on the northern coast 
of Africa. Under Hannibal, 
Carthaginian general, a for- 
midable rival of Rome. 

cassia. A species of medicinal 
bark known to the ancients; 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



225 



perhaps the same as cassia 
bark or cassia lignea. 

Cham or Ham. One of the 
three sons of Noe; reputed 
progenitor of the so-called 
Hamitic peoples. 

Charlemagne (742-814). Char- 
les the Great (Carolus Mag- 
nus). A great Frankish king 
who welded the kingdoms of 
western Europe into a united 
empire. . His coronation as 
Emperor by Pope Leo III 
(800) marked the foundation 
of the Holy Roman Empire. 

Charles Borromeo, St. (1538- 
1584). Nephew of Pope Pius 
IV and Archbishop of Milan. 
A recognized model of pas- 
toral energy and zeal. 

Cheop's pyramid. The great 
pyramid of Gizeh, built by 
the Egyptian king Cheops or 
# Khufu. 

cicada. The tree cricket, an 
hemipterous insect which 
makes a shrill noise with its 
wing-cases. 

Circus. The Circus Maximus, 
the great race-course in an- 
cient Rome; so called from its 
circular form. 

citron-wood of Mauretania. The 
citrus tree (tkyia cypressiodes), 
which grew on the slopes of 
the Atlas in northern Africa, 
furnished a delicately veined 
wood, susceptible of high 
polish. 

cloth of gold of Phrygia. A 
species of rich cloth made in 
Phrygia, a province of Asia 
Minor, was used by the Ro- 
mans for embroidery on arti- 
cles of dress. 

Cock-a-leekie. A Scotch di- 
minutive from the two ele- 
ments, " cock " and " leek " 
or onion. A cock or other fowl 
boiled with leeks or onions. 

Colonia Scillitana. Also Scil- 
lium, an ancient town of 



northern Africa, home of the 
twelve Scillitan martyrs. 

Colonna, Marco Antonio (1535- 
1584). Member of the 
princely Italian family of the 
Colonnas; commander of the 
Papal fleet in the battle of 
Lepanto. 

Column of Antoninus. Erected 
in Rome (174) in honor of 
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius 
Antoninus. 

Connaught. The westernmost 
of the four provinces of Ire- 
land. 

consummatum est. " It is con- 
summated." St. John xix. 
30. 

Corfu. The ancient Corcyra, 
the largest of the Ionian 
Islands, situated near the 
west coast of Greece. 

Corinth, Gulf of. A large inlet 
of the Mediterranean cutting 
off the Peloponnesus or Morea 
from northern Greece. 

Corinthian brass or bronze. Ac- 
cording to Pliny composed of 
copper, silver, and gold. Said 
to have been more precious 
than silver and almost as 
precious as gold. 

Cork. A city and port on the 
river Lee in Cork County, the 
southernmost of the counties 
of Ireland. 

coup-d'ceil. " A quick glance 
of the eye." 

Cromwell, Oliver (1509-1658). 
Lord Protector of the Com- 
monwealth of England, Scot- 
land, and Ireland, a form of 
government set up in Great 
Britain after the Civil War 
under Charles I. 

Croyland or Crowland. A town 
in Lincolnshire, England; seat 
in medieval times of a fine 
Benedictine Abbey. 

Cuthbert, St. Bishop of Lin- 
disfarne in England. Died 
687. 



226 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



Cuthbert (p. 38). A Benedic- 
tine monk, disciple of Vener- 
able Bede. 

Cybele. The Greek Rhea, 
" Mother of the Gods." A 
Syrian or Phrygian goddess 
whose worship was introduced 
into Rome. 

Cyprianus, Thrascius Caecilius. 
St. Cyprian, Bishop of Car- 
thage in Africa and Father 
of the Church. Martyred 
258. 

Cyprus. A large island in the 
Mediterranean, sixty miles 
west of the Syrian coast. 



David refused the armor, etc. 

(p. 132). I Kings, xvii. 3g. 
David taking the lion, etc. (p. 

143). I Kings xvii. 34. 35- 

Dea Syra. " The Syrian god- 
dess," i.e., Cybele. 

Decius, Caius Messius (200?- 
251). Roman Emperor, who 
ordered the first general per- 
secution of the Christians 
(250). 

decurion. In the Roman Em- 
pire, a senator in a provincial 
town or colony. 

Deioces. Founder of the Me- 
dian monarchy in the seventh 
century b. c. His story is 
told by Herodotus in the First 
Book of his History. 

Diana. The Greek Artemis. 
Goddess of light (the moon) 
and of hunting. 

diathesis. Any mental or physi- 
cal predisposition. 

Dominic, St. (1170-1221). A 
Spaniard, founder of the 
great Dominican Order of 
Friars. A zealous opponent 
of the Albigensian heresy in 
France. 

Don John of Austria (1547- 
1578). A Spanish general, 
half-brother of Philip II of 



Spain, through the father of 
both, the Emperor Charles V. 



Eata, St. Bishop of Hexham in 
England. Died 685. 

Echiniades. The present Cur- 
zolai Islands, a group situated 
off the southwest coast of 
Greece where the river Ache- 
lous enters the Ionian Sea. 

Edmund, St. King of East 
Anglia, one of the Anglo- 
Saxon kingdoms in England. 
Martyred by the Danes in 
870. 

Egbert, St. Anglo-Saxon monk 
of the eighth century. He 
lived the greater part of his 
life in Ireland. 

Ella. Northumbrian king of 
the ninth century. Put to 
death by the sons of Ragnar 
Lodbrog. 

Ely. A town in England, 
seventy-two miles northeast 
of London. The name is said 
to be derived from the eels 
which abound in the neigh- 
borhood. 

Embroidery of Babylon. The 
women of Babylon were 
skilled embroiderers. 

Emmanuel. A Hebrew word 
meaning " God with us." 
The name is applied in Scrip- 
ture to Christ, the Son of 
God. 

" enlighteneth every man, etc." 
(p. 103). St. John i. 9. 

Ephesus. An ancient city of 
Ionia in Asia Minor, seat of 
a famous temple of Diana. 

Erebus. In Graeco-Roman 
mythology, the god of dark- 
ness; also the infernal re- 
gions. 

Establishment (p. 194). The 
Anglican or Established 
Church of England. 

Ethelbert. King of Kent at the 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



227 



time of the arrival in England 
of St. Augustine, apostle of 
the Anglo-Saxons (sg7). 

Ewalds. Two brothers, disci- 
ples of St. Egbert, who were 
martyred by the pagan Sax- 
ons in Germany, 6g2. 

Exeter Hall. A building in the 
Strand, London, used for pub- 
lic meetings and entertain- 
ments. A favorite resort in 
Newman's time for anti- 
Catholic orators and agitators. 



Felix qui potuit, etc. (p. iog). 
Vergil, Georgics II, 492 et 
seq. " Happy is he who has 
been able to trace out the 
causes of things, and who has 
cast beneath his feet all fears 
and inexorable Destiny, and 
the noise of devouring 
Acheron " (Davidson). 

Ferns. A town in Wexford 
County, Ireland. 

flamen. The name flamen was 
applied to any Roman priest 
devoted to the service of a 
particular god. Said to be de- 
rived from the white woolen 
band (filamen) worn by the 
priests around their cap or 
head. 

Flavian amphitheater or Colos- 
seum. A great open-air 
theater in Rome, completed 
by the Emperor Titus in the 
year 80; the largest structure 
of its kind in the world. 

Fortunes. Fortuna, the Roman 
goddess of fortune. 

Francis de Sales, St. (1567- 
1622). Bishop of Geneva 
and founder with St. Jane 
Francis Fremyot de Chantal 
of the Order of the Visitation. 
His Introduction to a Devout 
Life is a classic in ascetic 
literature. 

Francis Xavier, St. (1506-1552). 



Spanish Jesuit, one of the 
first companions of St. Igna- 
tius Loyola, by whom he was 
sent to evangelize the Indies. 
Surnamed Apostle of the 
Indies. 
Frisons. The ancient Frisii, 
inhabitants of the modern 
West Friesland in Holland. 



genius (p. 75). Among the 
Romans, a tutelary or guar- 
dian deity. 

George, St. Roman soldier 
martyred under Diocletian 
in 303. Christian hero of the 
middle ages and patron saint 
of England. 

Getulian. Getulia, the country 
of the Getuli, represented on 
the map of to-day by the 
southernmost part of Morocco 
and a portion of the Sahara 
desert. 

Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794). 
Author of The Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire, an 
historical work of marked 
bias against Christianity. 

Giles, St. Hermit and later 
Abbot, who lived in France 
in the seventh century. 

glowing imagery of prophets, 
etc. (p. 107). The glories of 
the Kingdom of Christ on 
earth are vividly portrayed 
in the prophecies of Isaias. 

" God scourgeth, etc." (p. 39). 
Hebrews xii. 6. 

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 
(1 749-1832). German poet 
and prose writer of high rank. 

gout. A French word meaning 
" taste " or " relish." 

Gozo. A small island in the 
Mediterranean Sea, three 
miles from Malta. 

Grandees of Spain. Grandees 
or " the great ones," a name 
applied to the highest rank 



228 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



of the nobility of Castile 
since the thirteenth century. 

Gregory the Great, St. (540- 
604). Benedictine monk and 
Pope. He sent St. Augustine 
to England to convert the 
Anglo-Saxons (sg7). 

gull (p. 15). Old English word 
for an unfledged bird. 

gum of Arabia. Aromatic gums 
are among the products of 
southern Arabia. 

Gurta. See Callista. 



jis. A Scotch dish com- 
monly made of sheep's pluck 
mixed with onions and con- 
diments and boiled in the 
stomach of the same animal. 

Hainault. A province in south- 
western Belgium on the 
French frontier. 

harpies. In Greek mythology, 
a kind of rapacious monsters, 
half woman, half bird, who 
were said to pollute whatever 
they touched. 

haruspices. A class of sooth- 
sayers or diviners, Etruscan 
in origin, who forecast future 
events from the entrails of 
birds, lightning, etc. 

Heliogabalus or Elagabalus. 
A Syrian sun-god; also the 
name of a Roman emperor 
who in his youth was a priest 
of the god. A stone of conical 
shape and mysterious prop- 
erties was used in the wor- 
ship of Heliogabalus. 

Hercules. In Grajco-Roman 
mythology, the god of 
strength, celebrated for his 
twelve labors while on earth. 
Among these labors was the 
slaying of a lion at Nemea 
in Greece. 

Hilarion, St. (300-371). An 
Egyptian anchorite, one of 
the first promoters of the 



monastic life, which he in- 
troduced into Palestine. 

Hippo Regius. A town in the 
Roman province of Numidia 
in Africa; episcopal see of St. 
Augustine, the great Latin 
Father of the Church. 

" Hitherto hath he helped us " 
(p. 204). I Kings vii. 12. 

Horse in the fable (p. 180). One 
of /Esop's Fables. 

Hun. A barbarous people of 
Tartar stock who overran 
Europe in the fifth century. 
They met with a decisive 
overthrow in the battle of 
Chalons (451). 

Hunt-the-slipper. An old- 
fashioned game of pursuit 
once popular in England. 

Hymettus. A mountain range 
of Greece, lying southeast of 
Athens; noted both in ancient 
and modern times for its 
honey and its marble quarries. 



"Ihavefought,etc."(p. 206). II 
Timothy iv. 7. 

" I have glorified Thee, etc." (p. 
206). St. John xvii. 4. 

Ignatius Loyola, St. (1491- 
1556). Spanish soldier under 
Charles V; later priest and 
founder of the Society of 
Jesus. 

imperator. Originally a Roman 
military term for general or 
commander-in-chief; later the 
official title of the rulers of the 
Roman Empire (Emperor). 

impluvium (pi. impluvia). A 
cistern or reservoir in or next 
to the atrium of a Roman 
house to catch the rain water 
which was conveyed from the 
compluvium or opening in the 
roof. 

" in fear and in much trem- 
bling " (p. 188). I Corin- 
thians ii. 3. 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



229 



in hoc signo vinces. " In this 
sign thou shalt conquer." 

in statu. " In position." 

Ionian. Ionia; in ancient geog- 
raphy that' portion of the 
west coast-land of Asia Minor 
washed by the easternmost 
waters of the Mediterranean. 

"It is a dreadful thing, etc." 
(p. 38). Hebrews x. 31. 



Job. Patriarch of the Old Law 
whose great patience and 
resignation in seasons of trial 
and adversity are recorded 
in the Book of Job. " The 
Lord gave," etc. Job i. 21. 

John of Beverley, St. Bene- 
dictine monk, Bishop of Hex- 
ham and afterwards of York. 
Died at his monastery of 
Beverley in England in 724. 

Johnson in his Dictionary, etc. 
(p. 152). Samuel Johnson, the 
" Father of English lexicog- 
raphy," brought out his Dic- 
tionary of the English Lan- 
guage in 1755. 

Joseph of Germany. Joseph II 
(1741-1790), Emperor of Ger- 
many. His policy of state 
interference in ecclesiastical 
affairs provoked rebellion 
among his subjects. Called 
by Voltaire " My brother, the 
sacristan." 

Juba. See Callista. 

Jucundus. See Callista. 

Judah. Son of Jacob; Hebrew 
patriarch and progenitor of 
the most important of the 
twelve tribes of Israel. 

judgment-stricken king, etc. 
(p. 161). Pentheus, King of 
Thebes, who was torn to 
pieces by votaries of Bac- 
chus for interfering with the 
worship of that God. The 
legend forms the theme of 
one of Euripides' plays. 



Julian. Roman Emperor, 361- 
363. Surnamed the Apostate 
on account of his abjuring 
Christianity for paganism. 

Juno. The Greek Here. In 
Roman mythology, daughter 
of Saturn, wife of Jupiter and 
queen of the gods. " The 
tile or brick of Juno " (p. 71). 
The Graeco-Roman divini- 
ties were often represented 
under conventional symbols. 

Jupiter. Son of Saturn and 
principal deity in the my- 
thology of the Romans. The 
Greek Zeus. 



khennah or henna. A thorny 
shrub or tree with fragrant 
white blossoms. 

Kildare. County and town in 
Ireland. The town is about 
thirty miles southwest of 
Dublin. 

Knights of Malta. Order of 
Hospitalers of St. John of 
Jerusalem. A religious-mili- 
tary organization, founded in 
the middle ages and existing 
at the present day; pro- 
prietor at one time of the 
island of Malta. 



large edifice, etc. (p. 87). St. 
Mary's College, Oscott, Eng- 
land. It was here that New- 
man preached his sermon 
" The Second Spring " on 
July 13, 1S52. 

Laurium. A mountainous range 
in Attica, southeastern 
Greece. Its silver and lead 
mines were worked by the 
ancients. 

Leo I, St. (3oo?-46i). Sur- 
named the Great. Pope and 
Father of the Church. 

Lepanto, Gulf of. Also called 
Gulf of Corinth (q. v.). Scene 
of a crushing defeat of the 



230 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



Turks by the Christians in a 
naval battle (1571). 

Liffey. A river in the east of 
Ireland, emptying into Dub- 
lin Bay. 

" Lightning which shineth, etc." 
(p. 140). St. Matthew xxiv. 
27. 

Lincolnshire. A county in 
northeastern England. 

Lindisfarne. Now known as 
Holy Island; an island on the 
northeast coast of England, 
the seat of Lindisfarne Abbey 
and an influential center of 
Christianity in the middle 
ages. 

lion-skins of Getulia. See 
Getulian. 

litera scripta. Lit. " the writ- 
ten letter," i. e., writings, 
books. 

little black moor, etc. (p. 15). 
Gurta the sorceress. 

Loire. The largest river in 
France. It flows westward 
through the central portion 
of the country into the Bay 
of Biscay. 

Louvain. A town fifteen miles 
northeast of Brussels, in the 
Province of Brabant, Bel- 
gium. Center of the great 
Catholic University of Lou- 
vain. 

lowly chapel in the valley (p. 
86). Mary vale, a name given 
by Newman to the old Oscott 
College. 

Lucullus, Lucius Licinius (no 
B. C.-57 B. C). A successful 
Roman general. Also famous 
for his great wealth and dis- 
play of luxury. 

Lydia. In ancient geography, a 
kingdom, with Sardis for cap- 
ital, lying east of Asia Minor. 

M 

Magna Charta. The " Great 
Charter," a famous grant of 



fundamental English liber- 
ties, dating from the time of 
King John (1215). 

Mailduf or Meldrum, St. An 
Irish monk, founder of the 
celebrated Abbey of Malmes- 
bury in England. Died 
673- 

Malmesbury. A town in Wilt- 
shire, England. See Mailduf. 

Maria Monk. A woman of low 
character and pretended nun 
whose fictitious experiences 
were set before the public in 
a book entitled Awful Dis- 
closures of Maria Monk (New 
York, 1836). 

Mars. The Roman god of war; 
reputed founder of the Ro- 
man people through Romu- 
lus, his son. 

Martin, St. Bishop of Tours 
in France; surnamed the 
Apostle of Gaul. He was the 
son of a Hungarian tribune 
in the Roman army and lived 
in the fourth century. 

Mauretania. Roman province 
in northern Africa between 
Numidia and the Atlantic. 

Maurus, St. Benedictine monk, 
friend and disciple of St. Ben- 
edict. Died 584. 

mausoleum of Augustus. Built 
by the Roman emperor Au- 
gustus as a burial-place for 
himself and his family. 

melilotus. " Honey-lotus." In 
the text (p. 73), a sweet wine 
made from a species of the 
lotus plant. In botany, the 
name of a genus of clover- 
like herbs. 

Melrose. A town in Scotland, 
once the site of a famous 
medieval abbey, the ruins of 
which are described in Scott's 
Lay of the Last Minstrel. 

Mendes. A town of ancient 
Egypt. According to He- 
rodotus, the name means 
" goat," under the form of 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



231 



which animal the god Pan 
was worshiped in Mendes. 

Mercury. The Greek Hermes, 
son of Jupiter and official 
messenger of the gods. A 
term or short pillar, sur- 
mounted by a head of Mer- 
cury, was a favorite device 
for representing the god. 

Messina. Next to Palermo, the 
largest city in the island of 
Sicily. Destroyed in large 
part by the memorable earth- 
quake of December, 1908. 

millenary. From the Latin 
millenarium, a period of a 
thousand years. 

Minerva. An Italic deity, 
identified with the Athena of 
the Greeks; goddess of wis- 
dom and of the arts, especi- 
ally weaving and spinning. 

Minorca. One of the Balearic 
Islands, which are situated in 
the Mediterranean Sea, east 
of Spain. 

modus vivendi. " A mode of 
living"; a temporary ar- 
rangement agreed to between 
two contesting parties pend- 
ing the definite settlement of 
the point at issue by treaty 
or other means. In the text 
(p. 182) the word is used in the 
sense of " polity." 

Moorish monarch (p. 33). Ab- 
derahman, Caliph of Cor- 
dova in the ninth century, de- 
fended his country against the 
invading Normans. 

Morea. The ancient Pel- 
oponnesus, a peninsular body 
which forms the southern part 
of Greece. 

Mosheim, John Lorenz von 
(1694-1755). German Prot- 
estant historian, author of an 
Ecclesiastical History. 

mound of Hadrian. The moles 
Hadriani, now known as 
Castello S. Angelo, a massive 
structure in Rome built by 



the Emperor Hadrian as a 
tomb for himself and his suc- 
cessors. 

"mouth and wisdom, etc." 
(p. 199). St. Luke xxi. 15. 

mummer. A masked actor or 
buffoon. 

murena. A species of eel in 
favor among the Romans as 
a table delicacy. 

N 

nard of Assyria. Also called 
spikenard, a kind of precious 
ointment. Assyriaque nardo, 
Horace, Odes, II, 16. 

Nativity of our Lady (p. 7). 
Commemorated in the Cath- 
olic calendar on September 7. 

Nero's golden house. A gorge- 
ous palace built in Rome by 
the Emperor Nero after the 
burning of the city (64). 

Newton, Sir Isaac (1642-1727). 
Celebrated English mathe- 
matician and natural philoso- 
pher. He discovered the 
great law of terrestrial gravi- 
tation. 

nil admirari. " To be aston- 
ished at nothing." Motto 
of the Stoic philosophers, ac- 
cording to whom man should 
show himself indifferent alike 
to good fortune and to bad. 

nimbi. Plural form of nimbus: 
in modern art, a halo or 
crown of glory around the 
head of Christ, the Blessed 
Virgin, or one of the saints. 
Used in a somewhat different 
sense in the text (p. 72). 

Nobles of Poland. The Polish 
nobility was noted for its in- 
tense aristocratic spirit. 

Northmen. A name applied to 
the inhabitants of Scandi- 
navia, who in the ninth and 
tenth centuries overran the 
countries to the south. 

Northumbrian. Northumbria 



21>2 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



(i.e., the country north of the 
Humber) was the northern- 
most of the early Saxon king- 
doms of England. 

Notae of Isidore. The " Notes," 
a work of St. Isidore (570?- 
636), Bishop of Seville in 
Spain and Father of the 
Church. 

Nottingham. A city in Notting- 
hamshire, one of the central 
counties of England. 

Numidia. In Roman times, a 
country or province in north- 
ern Africa adjoining Maure- 
tania on the west. 



" O King of Glory, etc." (p. 38). 
Antiphon of the Magnificat 
in the Second Vespers of 
Ascension Day. 

" O Sapientia, etc." (p. 141). 
" O wisdom that disposeth 
all things mightily and 
sweetly, O Adonai, King of 
David and Expectation of 
the Nations, come to save us, 
O Lord our God." From the 
so-called O antiphons, which 
occur in the Divine Office for 
the last week of Advent. 

officium. Under the Roman 
Empire, a term applied, 
among other uses, to the 
building or place where court 
was held and governmental 
business transacted. 

Olympus. In ancient geogra- 
phy, the name of several 
mountains, the largest of 
which, on the borders of 
Thessaly and Macedonia, 
was fabled to be the home of 
the gods. 

one of your own order, etc. 
(p. 86). John Milner (1752- 
1826), Titular Bishop of 
Castalaba and Vicar-Apos- 
tolic of the Midland District 
of England. Wrote End of 



Controversy, a well-known 
book of Catholic polemics. 
Coming as it did before the 
days of Catholic emancipa- 
tion, his career covered a 
somewhat gloomy period in 
the history of the Catholic 
Church in England. 
Otus. A mountain in Attica, 
southeastern Greece. 



Palestrina, Giovanni de (1524- 
1594). Italian composer, re- 
nowned for his important con- 
tributions to Church music. 

Pantheon. A circular temple 
at Rome, built 27 b. c. by 
Agrippa, son-in-law of Au- 
gustus, and rebuilt by Had- 
rian. It was dedicated to all 
the gods, whence the name 
Pantheon {iravdeLov), i.e., 
" temple of all the gods." 

Paphos. Paphos, in the island 
of Cyprus, was a renowned 
center of the worship of Aph- 
rodite or Venus. In the 
inner sanctuary of her temple 
was an image of the goddess 
represented under the form 
of a cone. 

papyrus of Egypt. The inner 
bark of the papyrus plant of 
Egypt was made by the an- 
cients into a kind of paper. 

Parnes. A mountain of Greece, 
about fifteen miles north of 
Athens. 

Patras. A fortified seaport of 
Greece on the Gulf of Patras, 
thirteen miles southwest of 
Lepanto. 

Patrick, St. (396-469). Apostle 
and patron saint of Ireland. 
He was commissioned by 
Pope St. Celestine to under- 
take the conversion of the 
pagan Irish. 

Paul, St. The Apostle of the 
Gentiles and author of most 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



233 



of the epistles of the New 
Testament. Martyred with 
St. Peter at Rome between 
64 and 68. 

pearls of Britain. Pearls are 
found in certain rivers of 
Scotland and Wales. Pliny 
and Tacitus make mention 
of British pearls. 

Pentelicus. A mountain of 
Greece, ten miles northeast 
of Athens, famed for its 
quarries of pure white marble. 

Peripatetic. A follower of 
Aristotle; probably so called 
from the circumstance that 
the great philosopher was ac- 
customed to deliver his lec- 
tures while walking up and 
down (TrepnraTrjTiKos, irepLTra- 
rtiv, to walk about). 

petasus. A kind of felt hat 
worn by the Romans. 

Peter went out, etc. (p. 186). 
Pope Leo I, or the Great, dis- 
suaded Attila, king of the 
Huns, from attacking Rome. 

Peterborough. A city in North- 
amptonshire, England. Its 
medieval cathedral is & fine 
specimen of Gothic. 

Philip Neri, St. (I5I5-I595)- A 
native of Florence in Italy; 
founder of the Congregation 
of the Oratory of which Car- 
dinal Newman was a mem- 
ber. His piety was of a pecu- 
liarly sweet and winning type. 

Philip II (1527-1598). King of 
Spain. Son of the Emperor 
Charles V and husband of 
Mary Tudor. A stanch de- 
fender of Catholic interests 
during the period of the 
Catholic reaction. 

phoenix. A mythical bird 
fabled to rise triumphant 
from its own ashes. Hence a 
symbol of immortality. Name 
also applied by the Romans 
to a certain rare species of 
bird. 



pileus. Among the Romans, a 
felt cap or hat emblematic of 
liberty; hence given to slaves 
when they received their 
freedom. 

Pius IV (Giovanni Angelo di 
Medici). Pope from 1559 to 
1566. He was the uncle of 
St. Charles Borromeo, in 
whose arms he expired. 

Pius V, St. (Michele Ghisleri). 
Pope from 1566 to 1572. A 
Dominican friar of great 
austerity of life. As Pope he 
displayed great zeal in check- 
ing the progress of Protes- 
tantism. 

plagues of Egypt. Exodus 
vii-x. 

plaids of Gaul. From Caesar's 
time the Gauls were noted for 
skill in embroidery. Plaid is 
a generic name for a kind of 
cloth with checkered pattern. 
Cf. Dictionary. 

plebs Siccensis. " The Siccan 
mob." 

Pole, Cardinal (1500-1558). 
Grand-nephew of Edward IV 
of England through his 
mother Margaret, Countess 
of Salisbury, who was 
martyred under. Henry VIII. 
As Papal Legate in England 
and Archbishop of Canter- 
bury he took an active part 
in the temporary reconcilia- 
tion of England to the Holy 
See under Queen Mary. 

Pompey (Cneius Pompeius). 
Member, with Caesar and 
Crassus, of the first trium- 
virate; overcome by Caesar at 
Pharsalia (48 B. C.). 

Pompey's Pillar. A Corinthian 
column of red granite at 
Alexandria in Egypt, erected 
in 302 in honor of the Em- 
peror Diocletian. The origin 
of the name is unknown. 

Popery. A term applied op- 
probriously by Protestants 



234 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



to the doctrines and practices 
of the Catholic Church. 

prefects. In the Roman ad- 
ministrative system, any high- 
ranking official who had the 
care or management of a 
thing was called a prefect; 
e.g., prsefectus urbis, " pre- 
fect of the city." 

Preston. A city in Lancashire, 
England; a center of the 
cotton-spinning industry. 

Prime Minister (p. 195). Lord 
John Russell, Prime Minister 
of England, joined in the 
popular outcry against Cath- 
olics occasioned by the re- 
establishment of the Catholic 
hierarchy of England in 1850. 

Prince of the Church (p. 87). 
Cardinal Wiseman (1802- 
1865), Archbishop of West- 
minster and head of the 
Catholic hierarchy of Eng- 
land. 

proconsuls. Under the Empire 
the governor of a Roman 
province was called a pro- 
consul (i.e., for the consul). 
A consul, on going out of 
office, was given the govern- 
orship of a province or else 
some important military com- 
mand. 

Ptolemy (Ptolemaeus). The 
first king of Egypt after 
the death of Alexander the 
Great. 

Punic. Phoenician; also Car- 
thaginian, as the people of 
Carthage were of Phoeni- 
cian origin. 

Pyrrhic. A quick-moving mar- 
tial dance in which the 
various movements of attack 
and defense between two 
combatants were imitated. 
Named after Pyrrhicus, its 
inventor. 

Python. Name of a large ser- 
pent killed by Apollo near 
Delphi in Greece; hence also 



applied to the celebrated 
oracle of Apollo at Delphi. 



Quis custodiet ipsos custodes. 

" Who will watch the watch- 
men? " 

R 

Ragnar Lodbrog. Norse sea- 
king and viking. Died at the 
hands of Ella, King of North- 
umbria, between 862 and 867. 

rationales. Plural form of ra- 
tionalis (L.). Under the Ro- 
man Empire, a manager of 
accounts; a bookkeeper. 

Reading. A town of Berkshire, 
England, thirty-nine miles 
southwest of London. 

Reform Bill. A bill passed by 
the English Liberals in 1832 
which extended the electoral 
franchise and provided for a 
more equitable representation 
of English towns and bor- 
oughs in Parliament. Name 
also applied to similar meas- 
ures passed in later years. 

" Rejoice with me, for I have 
found my sheep." St. Luke 
xv. 6. 

Ricci, Flaminio. Italian Ora- 
torian, disciple of St. Philip 
Neri. 

Rose of Saron or Sharon. A 
scriptural plant identified by 
some as the autumn crocus 
and by others as a species of 
narcissus. 

Rouen. A city of northern 
France, lying between Paris 
and the English Channel. 
Scene of the execution of 
Joan of Arc by the English 
(1413)- 



Saint upon whom lay, etc. 
(p. s)- St. Pius V, Pope 
from 1566 to 1572. 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



235 



Samson rending the lion, etc. 

(p. 143). Judges xiv. 6. 
Samuel's spirit, etc. (p. 104). 

I Kings xxviii. 
San Girolamo della Carita. A 
church in Rome, at one time 
the residence of St. PhilipNeri. 
Girolamo is Italian for Jerome. 
Saturn. A mythical king of 
Latium, identified with the 
Greek Chronos. His reign 
was called the Golden Age, 
because during it men were 
reputed to have made ex- 
traordinary progress in civili- 
zation and social order. The 
name Saturn was also given 
to a cruel Phenician deity to 
whom human sacrifices were 
offered, 
satyrs. In Greek mythology, a 
kind of demi-god having 
goats' feet and dwelling in 
woods and forests. 
savage hordes, etc. (p. 186). 
The invasion of the Roman 
Empire in the fourth and 
fifth centuries by the bar- 
barian tribes of the North. 
Savonarola, Jerome (1452- 
1408). Italian Dominican 
friar of great eloquence and 
zeal for reform. Executed at 
Florence in 1498. 
scrinia. Plural form of scrin- 
ium, a box or chest for carry- 
ing articles, especially books 
and documents; also, under 
the Empire, a department or 
bureau of the public service. 
Secular Games. Games cele- 
brated at intervals of a cen- 
tury (saeculum) or longer 
period. They generally lasted 
three days and nights and 
consisted of theatrical shows 
and sports and combats of 
various kinds. 
Serapis. The principal Egyp- 
tian deity. His worship 
was introduced among the 
Greeks and Romans. 



Sesostris. A mythical Egyp- 
tian king. 

Severus, Alexander. Roman 
Emperor from 222 to 235. 

Shaftesbury. Anthony Ashley 
Cooper, third earl of Shaftes- 
bury (1671-1713), author of 
Characteristics of Men, Man- 
ners, Opinions, and Times. 
His writings show a skeptical 
bias. 

" she is more precious, etc." 
(p. 213). Proverbs iii.; Ec- 
clesiasticus xxiv. 

Sibyl. In Roman mythology, a 
prophetess or fortune teller; 
especially a celebrated one at 
Cumae in Italy, who was said 
to have predicted the coming 
of Christ. 

Sicca Veneria. An ancient 
town of Phoenician origin 
situated on the river Bag- 
radas within the limits of the 
Roman province of Numidia 
in Africa. It derived its epi- 
thet Veneria from a temple 
of Venus, who was worshiped 
here with Phoenician rites. 
Its site is covered by the 
modern town of Keff in 
Algiers. 

silks of Persia. Silk is still the 
staple product of Persia. 

" solicitude of all the churches" 
(p. 5). II Corinthians xi. 28. 

" sound and fury, etc." Mac- 
beth, Act V, Scene vii. 

Spanish doublet. An upper, 
close-fitting garment worn by 
men in western Europe from 
the end of the fifteenth to the 
seventeenth century. 

Speratus, St. Martyred, with 
eleven companions, at Car- 
thage in 180. 

subligarium. A short tunic or 
apron in use among the 
Romans. 

Sochothbenoth. Hebrew for 
" tents of the daughters." 
iv. Kings xvii. 30. 



22,6 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



Summa quies. " The most per- 
fect quietness." Newman's 
own translation. 

Sun (p. 73). Apollo, the 
Phcebus of the Greeks, was 
one of the many sun-gods of 
antiquity. 

Sunian headland. The prom- 
ontory or headland of Sunium 
formed the southernmost part 
of Attica. 

" sweet odor of his knowl- 
edge, etc." II Corinthians 
ii. 14. 

Sylla, L. Cornelius (i38?-78 
b. a). Roman dictator and 
rival of Marius. 

symposium. From a Greek 
word meaning " a drinking 
together "; a post-prandial 
drinking bout; a banquet. 

Syrtis. The Greater Syrtis 
(Syrtis Major) and Lesser 
Syrtis (Syrtis Minor) were 
the ancient names of two 
gulfs of the Mediterranean 
Sea near the present Tripoli. 



Tacape. An ancient African 
town, now Gabes in Tripoli. 

Tarshish. A locality of com- 
mercial importance frequently 
mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment. Identified by some 
with Cadiz in Spain. 

Tauromenian. Tauromenium, 
the modern Taormina, a city 
in Sicily. Wine-making is 
still a Sicilian industry. 

Tertullianist. A follower of 
Tertullian, a native of Car- 
thage in Africa; noted eccle- 
siastical writer and one of the 
Latin Fathers. In later 
years he fell into the Mon- 
tanist heresy. Died about 230. 

Terp ay ajj/os. Greek word mean- 
ing literally " with four 
equal angles, i.e., square " 
and figuratively " as perfect 
as a square." Applied in 



the figurative sense to the 
"model man " by Aristotle, 
founder of the Peripatetic 
School of philosophy, in his 
Nicomachean Ethics, bk. i, 
c. 10. 

that huge town, etc. (p. 86). 
Birmingham. St. Mary's 
College, Oscott, where New- 
man preached his sermon 
" The Second Spring," is a 
few miles north of this city. 

" The Lord hath been mindful, 
etc." (p. 204). Psalms cxiii. 12. 

Thebes. Name of several 
ancient towns, one of which, 
in Upper Egypt, had a hun- 
dred gates. 

Theodore, St. A native of 
Tarsus in Cilicia; sent by 
Pope St. Vitalian to England 
as Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Died 690. 

" their stench rose up, etc." 
(p. 67). Joel ii. 20. 

" There is a time for silence, 
etc." Ecclesiastcs iii. 7. 

Thomas Aquinas, St. (1224- 
1274). Surnamed the Angelic 
Doctor. Dominican friar 
and authoritative exponent 
in his Summa Theologies, of 
the scholastic theology of the 
middle ages. 

Times (p. 195). The London 
Times. 

Timor or Timour (1333-1405). 
A Tartar conqueror who 
overran Central Asia and de- 
feated the Sultan Bajazet at 
Ancyra. Better known to 
English readers under the 
name Tamerlane. 

Titus (40-81). Roman Em- 
peror of the Flavian line. 

Trajan (53-117). Roman Em- 
peror of the Flavian line. 

triclinium. The dining-room of 
a Roman house. So called 
from the couch (triklinion) 
on which the Romans reclined 
when at meals. 



GLOSSARY AND NOTES 



237 



triduo or triduum. A space of 
three days devoted to special 
prayer and religious services. 

Tritonis. A district in northern 
Africa called in ancient times 
the " granary of Carthage." 

Tyrian purple. A famous dye 
of antiquity, first known to 
the inhabitants of Tyre in 
Phoenicia. It was obtained 
from the crushed bodies of 
certain species of snails. 

U 

Umbrian. Umbria, a district of 
northern Italy. 

University of Paris. Estab- 
lished in the thirteenth cen- 
tury by a bull of the great 
Pope, Innocent III, and sup- 
pressed at the time of the 
French Revolution. 



Vesta. Roman goddess of the 
hearth and domestic life. 

Via Sacra. The Sacred Way, a 
celebrated thoroughfare in 
ancient Rome leading up to 
the Capitol. 

vicarii. Plural form of vicarius 
(L.); in the Roman admin- 
istrative system, a deputy 
official or substitute; a vicar. 

W 

"waiting for the moving, etc." 
(p. 140). St. John v. 3. 

Walcheren. One of a group of 
islands off the west coast of 
Holland, to which country 
they belong. 

webs of Cos. Finely woven 
silks from the island of Cos 
(or Kos) in the vEgean Sea 
were in use among the Ro- 
man ladies. 

" went every one of them, etc." 
(p. 111). Ezechiel i. 12. 

Wessex. Kingdom of the West 



Saxons, whose king, Egbert, 
acquired an overlordship over 
the other Saxon kings of 
England (827). 

" what thou doest, etc.". (p. 139). 
St. John xiii. 27. 

whose youth is renewed, etc. 
(p. 187). Psalms cii. 5; xvii. 34. 

Wilfrid, St. Anglo-Saxon monk 
of the Benedictine Order; 
Bishop of York and apostle 
of Sussex and the Isle of 
Wight. Died 7og. 

Willibrord, St. Anglo-Saxon 
monk, Bishop of Utrecht and 
apostle of Friesland. Died 
739- 

Wolsey, Thomas (1471-1530). 
Cardinal and prime minister 
of Henry VIII, whose dis- 
pleasure he incurred over the 
question of the king's divorce 
from Catherine of Aragon. 

wool of Miletus. Miletus, an 
ancient town in Caria, Asia 
Minor; its neighborhood was 
famed as a sheep-raising 
district. 

words of Moses, etc. (p. 140). 
Exodus xxiv. 6-8. 

X 

xysti. Plural form of xystus 
(L.); in Greek architecture, 
a long, open portico for ath- 
letic exercises. 



York. Capital city of York- 
shire in northern England. Its 
medieval cathedral is one of 
the most splendid Gothic 
edifices in the world. 



Zazzara, Francisco. Friend of 
St. Philip Neri and member 
of his Congregation of the 
Oratory. 



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